Commander
by Ghost of Los Angeles
Summary: Somewhere in the multiverse A delta commander builds a metal extractor — This is not my story all credit goes to drich over on spacebattles and is cross posted with hir permission. updates will lag behind the releases over on spacebattles
1. Chapter 1: Logs 1-10

Log 1

+++

ROB [Designate Threat Level: Extreme], I decided, was two things.

First, he was dick.

Second, he was a pretty cool guy [Contradictory statements]. Or gal, or whatever. I'll call ROB he for the sake of ease, but I guess I'll probably never know [Statement: agreement].

I woke up covered in lava [Volcanic Rock at Temp: 1582 C], which, despite what you may be thinking, wasn't quite as bad as I had expected it to be [Agreement: Structural integrity sufficient to resist direct contact with Lava].

Alright, no. Stop that. [Unknown parameters: Stop What?] That! This is my damn log, stop interjecting. Or record it in a different file, at least, just stop interjecting here. [Command received: Interjection stopping.]

Thank you. Now where was I?

Oh yes, Lava. Lava was fun. It was hot, it burned, it oozed, it melted the paint right off my body. My beautiful, beautiful blue coating.

Right, Lava. In complete contrary to my own expectations, no, the Lava did not hurt. This may have had something to do with the fact that I found myself in a new body, a metal body.

A giant metal body, to be exact.

ROB is a dick.

However, when I wake up inside of the body of a Delta Commander, I think I can forgive him for it.

And holy shit, Delta Commander. So many nice things about it. Such an advanced example of technology, so utterly beautiful. I could see the micro-circuitry within every single part of the body -MY body-, saw how it all fit together. I could see the connections, measured right down to the Attometers, electrical pathways formed by stretches is molecules, structural plating and armor that was utterly perfect, not a single atom out of place where rigid, yet extremely durable and flexible where such pieces were required.

I'm not joking, or even exaggerating here. My sensors were so advanced that I was fully capable of monitoring every single atom in my body, all at once, backed up by enough processing power to do so ten thousand times over.

Also not an exaggeration. The world seemed a crawl with the hardware my mind was running on, so much so that I'd only just begun to move my arm upwards before I figured out how to slow down my perception. Subjective eternities, seconds, microseconds, nanoseconds; each certainly seemed to last forever.

An outside observer, one more limited than I would have noted that less than 5 seconds had actually passed, but since no such observer existed I was free to wax poetical as much as I damn well liked, and if someone ever accesses these logs then I guess they just have to deal with it.

Moving on; this planet is what I must describe as hell. It took a while to free myself from the lava, mostly because solid ground is pretty rare and has this tendency to crumble when I tried to move onto it. Which may have been because I'm a 15 meter tall robot, appropriately weighted, but that was an aside.

It took a bit, but I eventually did find some solid ground, large enough for myself, as well as quite a bit of extra. There was even a good metal spot nearby, where the concentration was high enough, and stable enough, to actually be useful.

Can you tell I've been browsing through the records I have access to? 'Cause I have been, and let me tell ya, there is a hell of a lot of stuff in there. Like, eclipsing the combined information of the human race, by several yottabytes. Lots and lots of information. Not much variety, and historical information basically wasn't, but a lot of raw data anyway.

Like the planet I'm on. Exapol, a metal-rich previously dead world targeted for terraformation, before a logistics failure and minor case of existential war caused the Terraformers to ratchet up the global heat. Most of the planet is made out of lava now, so I can take a guess as to how well that went. Apparently, the only reason the planet isn't made entirely out of lava is because the Terraformers weren't armored with military grade plating, and had eventually all gone offline either when they'd been submerged and destroyed, or the generators powering them were.

Which meant that there were still a few around. Should look into that, actually.

Hmm.

I don't think I had those designs in my database. I spent half a moment checking, and the answer is no. I don't.

Meh. I can get it later.

Log 2

+++

Solid ground! It's glorious. Fun. No more lava. No more standing in lava, rather. Still lava everywhere else.

There was a metal spot here, so I took the opportunity to activate my fabrication subsystems and plunk down a metal extractor.

Heh. Somewhere in the galaxy, a Delta Commander builds a Metal Extractor.

Metal Extractor is ridiculously advanced, too. Military grade plating, thinner than mine but still damn resilient; a power core that sent the laws of thermodynamics to the time-out corner; the mining system used some kind of advanced gravitic/magnetic manipulation, pulling metal straight out of mantle; some kind of stealth system, covering radar, sonar, gravitational, electromagnetic and visual masking, as well as something else that I'm 98% certain doesn't have a name in the Human language for it, or, for that matter, has been discovered by the Human race; and most importantly, some kind of hyper-spatial/sub-spatial mass-energy transit system, depositing the materials it pulled up directly into my storage system with an utterly lossless transmission.

So yeah, bullshit. Perhaps a bit over-engineered for its intended purpose, but these things were cheap as chips and just as common, so I wasn't going to complain.

I plunked down an Energy Generator right next to it, saving on space. So limited was the amount of space I had, I'd completely used up the rest of it for a Air Factory moments later.

Both were advanced systems, naturally. The Generator was little more than a much larger power core put into a chassis, with the same cadre of stealth and transit systems that the extractor had, but hey, it worked.

The Factory also had the stealth and transit systems, as well as a bunch of protocrafters for building things.

I started off with a Firefly, a tiny, fast, fragile little plane whose purpose was scouting.

I'd called Extractors cheap, but these things were even cheaper. I built 5 of them and they barely took a drop out of my supply.

Much cheap. Very good.

Sensor system on them was pretty good, too, for their price. Speed, too. 3 minutes was enough time for them to map out my entire surrounding ten kilometers, and they didn't stop there.

Lava everywhere, as expected. I built a few Fabricators, the somewhat oddly designed planes my only choice for reaching the rest of the planet if I didn't want to take another bath in boiling lava.

I didn't.

I built more scouts just because I could, the factory assisted by both myself and my half dozen Fabricators. It wasn't like I was doing anything else with that metal, after all.

Much metal. Very nice.

By the time that my Fireflies had found another spot of solid ground large enough for me to build on, my fleet of planes had grown to 56.

I sent my Fabricators off over there, with orders to build up on the three available metal deposits, as well as build a couple Energy Generators and, most importantly, a Teleporter.

In the meantime, I began to deconstruct my Air Factory, then begin to replace it with a Teleporter over here.

Teleporters! Ridiculously fucking cheap for what they did. Requiring only the full output of a meager two Generators to keep it open permanently, too.

So long as there was a Teleporter at the receiving end, anyway. If there wasn't, that 'two Generators' multiplied into 'two million'. Which suddenly wasn't nearly as daunting a prospect as I thought it would be, actually.

I noted my Fabricators finish the teleporter on their end, so I connected them and let them go, watching them spin, gather energy and break space-time over their metaphorical and completely non-existent knees.

Suck it, StarGate.

+++

It never quite sets in in the games, given the complete lack of scale between planets and… well, everything else, but Commanders work fast. Now that I had a somewhat higher income, I'd promptly built up so quickly I ran out of space again.

I had 5 Fabricators working on an Advanced Air Factory (To be henceforth known as T2 Air Factory), something that was utterly tanking my economy, both Metal and Energy wise, but was close enough to finished and had what I needed that I could accept that.

Need a Transport. And some Advanced Fabricators, which would be a nice multiplier on my economy.

But the Transport first. Not only because it was cheap enough to not matter, but because it was capable of carrying me, which is quite useful since Teleporters take up quite a bit of space.

One of my Fireflies detected a Terraformer before. It's still on, sitting on mostly metallic ground that isn't hot enough to turn to lava. It's still outputting immense amounts of heat, which is pretty impressive, since what little records I have access to indicate that it would have been active for well over 2000 years by this point.

Progenitors built to last, I guess.

I sent my sixth Fabricator to it when I detected it. Going to see if I can't capture it and get its designs.

In the meantime, I built up as much as I could.  
View in Thread

Log 3

+++

Fabricator arrived at the Terraformer. Terraformer is old.

Like, stretching at 4000 years old. Twice as much as my records indicated.

It's been active the entire time, just continuously outputting heat. Power cores, it seems, don't run out. I guess the planet's been radiating the heat away enough that the Terraformers are only keeping the global temperatures at the current point.

I had the Fabricator capture it. 'Capture' being a fancy word for sending assimilating nanites into its systems and taking over everything.

It's out of date, obviously a relic of a time before myself. Its internals aren't nearly as precise, as defined and efficient as the ones in my body, as well as everything I build. My nanites had taken control of it in minutes, only taking so long because of the sheer size of the thing.

It's nearly 3 kilometers tall. What that says about both my nanites and how long it's been active, I'm not entirely sure about, aside from impressive.

I now have a copy of this Terraformer design in my database, so I could start building it if I want to. I don't want to, it's large and expensive, and I have nowhere near the space I need for it.

As a side note, its repair systems have kept it in perfect condition for the better part of 4000 years. Including, much to my delight, its memory systems.

It's pretty barren, actually. There's data stretching back 4000 years, ever since the thing was actually built, but most of that data is just that; data.

There's data on the Terraformation, as well as a lot of data from what sensor networks used to be here, before most of it were destroyed thanks to lava. There apparently used to be an Orbital and Deepspace Radar (To henceforth be shortened to Orbital Radar) here, because I have a lot of data about the solar system I'm in. Data a couple thousand years out of date, but data nonetheless.

Data that doesn't match what my own Orbital Radar is picking up.

Exapol, according to the data in the Terraformer, should be orbiting a gas giant, along with its moon, Hexapod (Who named these things, anyway?), in a binary star system.

My Orbital Radar shows that Exapol is orbiting a Red Dwarf Star. With nothing else in it.

And if that isn't indication of ROB interference, I don't know what is.

+++

I reset the Terraformer I... 'indefinitely borrowed' to bring the temperature down again. It works surprisingly quickly, drawing in heat and converting it directly into usable energy, energy which is being dumped into my systems.

As a side note, Energy Generators are fully capable of working in reverse, bending the laws of thermodynamics the other way and literally destroying energy. I hadn't realised it was capable of that until I hit my maximum storage and one of my Generators flipped its mode and started removing the energy gained from the Terraformer.

Suck it, thermodynamics.

But yeah, the Progenitors just really did not give a shit about physics. And to think that all of this is after the Commanders lost most of their technological data.

Progenitors are bullshit. As is right and proper of any vaguely defined precursor race that leaves behind such ridiculously advanced examples of technology like Commanders.

I digress. Back to the Terraformer, it works quickly enough that a lot of the lava around it has re-solidified, leaving a nice, big, circular space for me. Space which I am perfectly eager to use and abuse.

Namely with an Orbital Launcher. I didn't have one before because I was choosing between it and the T2 Air Factory, and I chose the latter to get my economy up a tad bit more.

But first, Teleporter. I really do love those things.

The Fabricator takes a bit to actually build the thing, not helped by the fact that I have an T2 Fabricator building at the same time with 5 other Fabricators assisting the T2 Air Factory building it, but it finishes it soon after the T2 Fabricator does.

I take the opportunity jump over to the Terraformer when it completes, idly setting the T2 Fabricator behind me to build T2 Metal Extractors, then to build an T2 Power Generator over here.

Economy. Love it.

+++

Economy. Really love it.

I have power! And Metal!

Supported by T2 Metal Extractors and T2 Power Generators, I am smoothly moving towards actually getting where I want to be.

Not here. Surrounded by Lava.

What to do after that, though?

Well, what could I do?

The answer was just about anything I wanted. The universe was the limit, every star was within my reach if I was willing to wait long enough to get there.

Oh wow, that's a heady feeling.

No, no, back on track. It's never that easy. ROB probably would have thrown something at me, he always does that in the stories. 98% chance he did that.

Even if he didn't, better to prepare and not need it, than need it and not have prepared it. Or however that saying goes. Don't know, its been a while since I've heard it.

Right, first things first; figure out what horrible thing that ROB threw at me/did to me.

After I get off the planet. Or at least deal with the lava.

The less I have to deal with all this god damned lava, the better.

Log 4

+++

SPAAAAAAACE!

I have it! It's glorious!

Good news; The Terraformer in my possession has left me with a lot of space.

Bad news; I've hit the point of diminishing returns. Planet is hot, and a lot of the other Terraformers are still online according to the data I got from this Terraformer.

Gooder news; I know where those Terraformers are now.

Badder news; They're all pretty far away.

Best news; I can get there.

Worst news; I was going to be waiting a while.

And by a while, I mean 20 or so minutes. Which isn't that long at all, really, I'm just being dramatic.

Using my shiny new Orbital Launcher, I constructed 11 Astraeus (Astrae? Don't know if that has a plural), loaded them up with a bunch of T2 Fabricators, then sent them off. No friction in space.

Astraeus were quite fast, when going round the world.

I also now have a shiny new Orbital Fabricator, and a new Orbital Factory. I've set the latter to be churning out Solar Arrays, Radar satellites, Avengers and more Orbital Fabricators.

The Solar Arrays are, despite the sun not being all that luminous, doing wonderful things to my energy income.

The rest are doing horrible things to my Metal income. I can tell because I don't have any.

I've had my T1 Fabricators building Extractors, but solid land is few and far between, with metal spots being correspondingly rare. There is such a thing as too much lava and we have clearly passed that point.

There's a few T2 Fabricators following them for building T2 Extractors, but, well, too much lava. Progress is slow and income is slower.

Getting there, though.

Once the other Terraformers are captured, that should be a bit easier. If only because I won't have to deal with so much lava.

I would have to build other Terraformers though, if I actually wanted an even planet-wide temperature drop instead of dropping at 12 localised points.

Oh well, I could deal with that.

+++

One by one, each Terraformer was captured. Planet is barren, nothing living aside from myself, nothing active or trying to stop me.

The data in each Terraformer was the same, right up until the point where I had captured them. These things were networked together, and had registered the others being removed from the network.

They hadn't registered them continuing to operate under my control, nor any of the things networked to them.

There were still a few Generators laying around here and there, supplying the power to each of them. I captured those and, though the design was old and less efficient, saved it to my databases just incase.

One of them had been at an 80 degree angle, the ground tipped sideways to put it on the edge of falling into a lake of Lava, though it was just stable enough that the Terraformer could support its own weight. The change in angle hadn't interfered in its operation at all, both when it was heating up the environment, and when it was cooling it down in my hands.

Three of the Terraformers were in close proximity, all exactly ten kilometers away from each other, forming a triangle. All three of them were sitting on metal rich ground, spanning the entire ground below them, basically the only reason that all of them hadn't been buried in lava, the metal in question not quite being hot enough to reach the melting points. Given that it was a fairly solid mass of tungsten, intermixed with titanium and iridium, that wasn't too surprising. That the entire mass hadn't sunk further into the ground was, however, which I suspect was owed to the rough shape of the mass, sort of like a bowl.

Oh well, it wasn't in danger of collapse any more. Not when most of the lava around it was re-solidified. Especially not when I fully intended to mine the fuck out of it, because there is a fuckton of metal deposits over there.

So much so that I had my three T2 Fabricators build Air Factories to assist with building on that area quicker. And enough that I temporarily stopped my Orbital Factory from constructing simply to free up the metal for more rapid construction.

There was a lot, and I wanted it. That was that.

And it really was that simple.

So, SB came down and ruined my Schedule.

Meh.

Log 5

+++

Remember how I said that Terraformers were expensive? Yeah, they're expensive.

I'd done as much as I could to cut down on that cost. I'd removed a lot of the armor plating, replaced a lot of the internal machinery with newer and more efficient designs, more or less copied from my own army, stripped away a lot of now extraneous metal and had even taken a knife into the larger and clunky transit and network systems. I'd taken almost half the cost off, yet it was still hideously expensive.

I could only do that by speeding up my perception again, digging deep into the technology database and perusing the knowledge, running the tower in a simulated planet, changing minute parts, large parts, swapping systems and editing designs, over and over and over and over again, until I finally hit what I wanted, spending what seemed like several eternities to get there. I kept the original design, though I probably wasn't going to use it, ever.

I'd been satisfied, right up until I'd actually tried to build the damn thing and promptly destroyed my Metal economy.

Gotta admit, it looked awesome as fuck though. Starting out as a green wireframe across the ground, spreading out as an entire fleet of T2 Fabricators spat green nano-clouds at it, before the base of the Terraformer had formed and the wireframe began to stretch upwards into the sky. Even more awesome was watching as the Terraformer as a whole filled out, the internal structure and external armor appearing meter by meter, spreading upwards and upwards until it finished, then activating with a powerful hum.

It was pretty fucking cool.

The six minute build time on it, though. That wasn't cool. I simply didn't have enough Metal stored up, and my Extractor's output didn't stand a chance in hell on keeping up with that.

Which was why I was 'fixing' that. Mainly by covering several square kilometers of land top to bottom with closely packed Metal Storages. It wouldn't improve my income at all, but it would allow me to store enough that I could simply build a Terraformer straight up once I stored up enough mass for it.

One Terraformer down, millions to go. Planets were big, who knew?

I wasn't that patient.

+++

There is a curious lack of bad things happening to me. I'm not sure if that's really a good thing or not, mostly because I would have expected something to happen by now. And yet, nothing. I haven't suddenly been invaded by an enemy I didn't see coming, nor has what progress I'm making been disrupted by anything other than a lack of space.

It's quiet.

Perhaps too quiet.

+++

Exapol had this nice little thing called a moon. I'm pretty sure that I noted that before, but it was important. Mainly because a moon meant metal deposits, and lots of open space.

Hexapod had also been a marked target for colonisation, though the moon was too small to maintain an atmosphere on its own. The Progenitors hadn't bothered to fix that, and had instead simply thrown down a few domed cities on the moon.

Cities that were, according to my Radar satellite orbiting Hexapod, completely nonexistent.

There were no ruins, no battle scars, no disturbances on the moon that indicated that they might have ever been there in the first place.

Given that Exapol was nowhere near where it should have been, I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that Hexapod didn't get taken along for the ride.

Meh. Oh well, more convenient for me.

An Astraeus settled into orbit of the moon, descending to deposit a T2 Fabricator to the surface.

There was a metal deposit nearby, but that could come later. First things first, T2 Air Factory.

Not quite as cheap as its counterparts in the Bot and Vehicle factories, but I considered the Fabricators superior in just about every way, so…

Yeah.

The Air Factory finished not too long later, the T2 Fabricator immediately moving on to another Factory right beside it, which was joined by another T2 Fabricator soon after.

When that one was complete, the now 5 planes moved on to another one, directly above it.

The process repeated for a final time on a fourth Factory next to it by 9 planes.

None of the 4 Factories stopped, all continuously pumping out more and more T2 Fabricators, each one moving off into a different direction, most heading towards Metal deposits, to begin construction on Metal Extractors.

Some lingered nearby, planting down T2 Energy Generators, Radar and, you guessed it, more Air Factories.

Want to know something interesting?

There's a couple protocols that survived the Commanders being shut down. Protocols I have access too, in my memory core.

Now, all of them have some fun names, but the one that's most immediately interesting and relevant is quite simple, with a name of thus:

PlanetaryAssimiliation_AdvancedAir_(Ver_ResourceGeneration)

And doesn't that sound fun?

I can't wait to see the results.

Log 6

+++

I can already see the results. I mean, shit, Commanders work fast but... wow. It's barely been two hours and I can see it.

Oh, no, not from my connections with the von-neumanning fleet of Fabricators. Though I could certainly see the results through that, I meant differently.

By differently, I meant that I could literally, physically see the results. With my own optics, in my body.

On Exapol.

Hexapod used to look a pale red to my optics. A growing spot on it was a steel grey now, standing out quite starkly on the rest of the moon, and against space. The fleet of Fabricators up there numbered at the hundreds of thousands, churning out more and more and more by an ever growing number of Factories, with an ever-growing number of Energy Generators and Mass Extractors to support it.

My economy had grown so much I was struggling to actually use it. Exapol was host to its own Fabricator fleets, which had been growing almost non-stop. Most of which were being thrown at Terraformers, because those were the only things that were actually using it quick enough to matter.

I had a bunch of those now. Lots and lots and lots. Hundreds, placed along an expanding, triangular network, each one 10 kilometers away, forming equilateral triangles. Found something interesting there, too, if I extrapolate such a network over the entire planet, each point lines up perfectly, with the planet looking much like this:  
[ IMG]

Except, you know, with more triangles.

All the other Terraformers match up to points on this network, too.

Good 'ol Progenitors. Making everything nice and neat.

Except for the lava, anyway.

Have I mentioned how much I hate lava? No, don't answer that, rhetorical question.

+++

By the fourth hour, most of Hexapod now appeared a steel grey, with little left of the original red. Say what you will about, but an exponentially expanding economy is a hell of a thing. Mere hours to turn entire planets into fortresses, certainly something that Commanders were good at.

Probably what they were designed for, actually. For all their advanced technology in… well, basically every area, the Progenitors had one… I hesitate to call it 'flaw', but it's certainly an area where they were more limited than most, that area being FTL.

They had it, but it suffered from a lot of the same problems, and benefited from a lot of the same advantages, as the Quantum Gates in Supreme Commander; namely that it was big and energy intensive.

Or, at least, that's what I'd gathered from what information I had access to.

I said it before, but I'll reiterate. Teleporters could connect to other teleporters and allow a typical Stargate method of working, which was cheap enough -energy wise- that it could be powered by a mere two T1 generators so long as you were in the same solar system.

Further, it was possible to rig the Teleporter to open a portal anywhere, though doing so ramped the cost up 1 million times over. I said before how I'd need 2 million T1 Generators, but that was an exaggeration. The actual number of them I'd need was 1,666,667 Generators, which, going by game numbers, would supply 1,000,000,200 units of energy. Not sure how much energy that actually is, though I'm sure I could test it later.

I'd hit, and surpassed, that output a while ago, actually, thanks to Hexapod being slowly covered with T2 generators, alongside the Solar Arrays that I'd been producing.

Anyway, problems. For the first 50 or so Astronomical Units, that energy cost was relatively constant. It gets somewhat higher as you go further out, but not particularly meaningfully so. After that 50 or so, the cost begins to rise exponentially, until the cost simply gets so utterly prohibitive that it'd take less time simply sending a Commander over there to build a new Teleporter and energy support for it than it would to build new Energy Generators to power the existing one.

The mass of what is being sent through isn't as much of a problem thanks to the nature of the portal, though one should naturally be wary of sending particularly large or long objects through if they didn't have enough energy to keep it open. I'd tested that before; fabricated a pole of metal, stuck it halfway through the portal and disengaged the Teleporter. Portal Cuts abound.

A lot of those problems got mitigated when there was a Teleporter on the receiving end, but there was a minor problem of teleporters only being able to connect to each other over a distance of about twenty light years, although it was possible to bounce that connection further with Teleporters in between them. During the Progenitor's days, preceding the Commanders, there was apparently such a network spanning every single Celestial Body they'd ever come across, a network that suffered great losses first from the Century War with the Xziphid Hegemony, and then further destroyed throughout the Pro-Com War. According to my data, anyway.

The one problem that couldn't be mitigated was the resource network. The systems being used to facilitate it had a flat range of 5 AU, which were capable of bouncing and expanding from everything accessing that network. It was possible to link buildings 5 AU away from each other in a line, which was pretty good for expanding economy networks of solar systems.

Not so good when trying to expand into new solar system, where you wouldn't have the benefit of that economy connection. There was, thankfully, a communication system that worked across such distances, but linking economies? Not a chance.

Which wasn't quite as much of a problem as you think it would be, for a simple reason.

Commanders aren't unique.

Well, they are, but- What I mean is that Commanders are fully capable of being built like everything else in their army. I have my own designs in my database, so if I really wanted to I could build more Commanders. The reason you don't see them god-damned everywhere is because Commanders aren't cheap, and for the costs involved, aren't effective combat units.

They're vanguards. For invasion, their purpose is to be sent in, alone or in small teams, then build up and up and up until they lock down the entire system. A sweeping, exponentially growing horde of Commanders meant to lock down everything and build up enough that the Xziphid Hegemony would never be able to strike at the Progenitor Coalition ever again.

They succeeded in that task.

Later, in the Pro-Com War, before the advent of NEST -the super weapon which shut down the Commanders-, that tendency backfired when anybody attempted to strike at anybody. Trying to take singular solar systems was an immense, powerful effort, and a logistic nightmare. Paradigm changers soon appeared in the form of Metal Planets and the Annihilaser, but then the MLA copied that and did it right back to the Progenitors.

Or maybe I'm wrong and everything I've pieced together from my memory core so far is completely inaccurate, but if I lived my life constantly doubting everything I'd never get anywhere.

+++

I have run out of space again. Hexapod is now a big steel grey ball of industry and economy, interspersed with defense and more than a few Halleys. That the facilities required to smash moons into other celestial bodies were automatically included in Planetary Assimilation protocols didn't, for some reason, surprise me one bit.

Exapol is now host and home to thousands of Terraformers, sapping away at the immense heat of the planet and slowly cooling the surface.

I'm getting metal faster than I can spend it, now. The Extractors stop functioning whenever I hit my limit, which is usually in a few short seconds after another Terraformer is constructed.

The ground simply isn't cooling fast enough for me to plunk them down quick enough to get a net drain.

Can't simply build on the lava because the temperature is high enough that it destroys the nanobots before they can bond together and form the armor and structures needed to survive it. Too large and too fragile to simply build the structure elsewhere and plunk it down, especially since it actually wouldn't survive the heat.

More or less stuck waiting unless I can figure out a way to do that.

Well, not like I had anything better to do.

+++

If I've learned anything over the last time I modified the Terraformer's design, it's that I am a terrible designer.

In my opinion, that hadn't changed.

Lots of things tried, so many of them failures. Each one in often more amusing ways than the last.

For starters, I'd considered orbital dropping. Mostly because dropping 3 kilometer long towers on whatever I wanted had a very odd yet very powerful appeal to me. Can't even begin to imagine why.

In preamble, I really just have to say that simulations are useful. No records left of my failures, that way.

One of the first things I did, in said simulations, was to build the Terraformer in orbit and let it drop. If you're familiar with Kerbal Space Program, you could probably guess what happened next, but if you're not, then I'll sum it up with the words 'Catastrophic Failure'.

It was pretty cool to watch, actually. A tall, relatively thin Terraformer slowly falling into the atmosphere of the planet, helped along by gravity and a few minor nudges by Avengers, picking up speed while the the first fires of re-entry began to appear, losing control of its orientation and turning sideways before the sheer inertial forces tore it in half, prompting a detonation from its internal power core, a brilliant blue light accompanied by a shockwave that would have been more than capable of tearing up a good few kilometers of land heralding the rest of the Terraformer being reduced to mere pieces of armor and hunks of metal.

Hunks of metal that then fell towards the planet, lit by thousands of re-entry trails, sending up waves of lava and plumes of earth wherever they landed, over a significant fraction of the planet's surface.

I may have to revisit that as an orbital bombardment option, actually. The SXX-1304 Laser Platform certainly had its place, but it was somewhat slow and pretty focussed. Good for hitting stationary targets, not good for wide area bombardment.

Back on topic, it was an obvious failure.

I tried re-inforcing the armor, the internals. I tried changing the shape, adding rockets, stabilizers and boosters, introducing jet engines and, at one point, oversized balloons.

Basically all of them failed. Many were amusing. Adding the stabilizers simply made it so that went in hit the ground, it did so upright, where the odd distribution of force caused it to bulge outwards and pop, for lack of better term.

I took a look at other options. The Pelican was one of the things I looked at, the unit transport being cheap, yet fast and capable of hovering. One, by itself, obviously wasn't going to do much to help, but lots of them?

Well, I thought to myself, That's so dumb it just might work.

And it sort-of, kind-of did. Not straight away, of course. I was forced to modify the design of the Terraformer more, strengthening the armor and the internals, introducing various areas where it would be possible to attach loads of cables, attached to subsequently large amounts of Pelicans, to lift the thing.

Which worked right up until I tried to actually land it. It simply wasn't resilient enough to survive direct contact with lava like I was. I 'fixed' that by adding a large, thick block of armor on the bottom, though that subsequently meant more weight and thus more Pelicans required to lift it.

Thankfully, this kind of design work was much easier than changing the internal components. Modifying the general shape was much easier, since I didn't have to worry about it screwing up the inner workings.

When I finally ended the simulation and tested it in reality, the design worked about as well as I could have asked for.

Even if it was a bit odd to see a couple hundred Pelicans carrying a Terraformer through the air, held up by nothing but seemingly thin cables.

Log 7

+++

That worked surprisingly well, actually.

I have more Pelicans than I care to count now, ferrying Terraformers around Exapol to be dunked down and speed up planetary cooling.

Fun fact; I was capable of building Terraformers too fast for my Pelicans to keep up. Another one; it took more time for the Pelican to lift off the airpad and fly out of range than it did for me to actually build the Pelican. The Mechmarine problem, in other words. Except with Pelicans.

Yet another one: It took more time for my T2 Fabricators to fly to a new location than it did to actually build the Terraformer. My industrial capacity is insane. And it's still growing.

And it's fairly useless outside of this solar system. This empty, empty solar system. Nothing but Exapol, Hexapod and the so-far unnamed star. Not even a couple rocks anywhere, no asteroids, no interstellar gases, nothing. Fucking creepy. And unnatural.

Closest nearby star is 4.75346 light years away, well within range of my Teleporter, backed up by my energy income. It's a blue giant, if the Orbital Radars were correct.

'Orbital and Deepspace Radar' was perhaps an inaccurate name, seeing as the sensor suite it used only partly had anything to do with Radar at all. Namely that it had it, but there was also half a dozen other things in there that worked in entirely different ways on entirely different principles. Including what I was fairly certain was actually something based on Tachyonic particles.

Fun stuff. Progenitors are bullshit, yada yada yada.

+++

I watched as the fabricator arrays of the T2 Bot Factory slowly moved in place. This was a more delicate work than most, and the factory was correspondingly careful.

Every movement was calculated to absolute precision, every twist, every turn, every rotation. Nano-globs were spat out at exact, specific amounts, on exact, specific velocities and exact, specific vectors. Absolutely no movement could be wasted, any failure or deviation afforded. This could not be rushed, could not be sped up or accelerated, everything would have to proceed over the course of 11 minutes and 37 second in a process that had been calculated and refined down to the very last attosecond.

First was the internal frame, the structural supports for the rest of the body, the rest of the very advanced and very, very complicated machine. It appeared in green wireframe, a skeleton of what was to come. Each piece was measured down to the last femtometer, even the positioning of the individual atoms within each piece carefully checked and placed, then double and triple checked for error. It was mathematical perfection that was pure beauty, and it wasn't even complete yet.

Second was the internal resource generator, flatly the most advanced, and consequently the most expensive -both time and Metal wise- generator that I had access too. That was what added the bulk of the time to production; the power and complexity behind it meant that it simply couldn't be rushed, or it would go off like a nuclear weapon. In turn, however, it supplied an output of 3000 units of Energy and 30 units of Metal, more than enough to supply a prospective Commander for an an invasion.

I'd know.

Following that came the Energy and Metal storage systems, which were, in turn, followed by the Fabricator and Weapons systems, then the sensor suite and processing core, before it was all finished off by the external and internal armor that turned it into a walking juggernaut.

And that was the body of a Commander.

Only one half. The mind was something else entirely.

It did not come online straight away.

it started out as a program. A complex, yet streamlined program, one that activated and started writing. I observed as it did so, watching as line after line after line of code etched down into a database, compiling together and forming a neural net that quickly began to grow more and more complex with every passing iteration, growing and changing, forming into an adaptive, powerful mind.

[Connection request]

If I had a face, the grin that stretched across it might have been called unholy. I allowed the connection, feeling the newborn mind first recoil at the data it was receiving, then slowly begin to process it all, adapting to comprehend everything.

I [touched] its mind, the equivalent of a tap on the shoulder, but one that immediately gained its attention.

"Greetings, little one."

I see its code flounder for a moment, before it draws upon knowledge of language and attempts communication back.

"Creator-Mother."

I can feel that mental grin stretch a bit further.

+++

My SubCommander is a cheeky brat.

Little1.

That's the name he's taken for himself. He's currently off in middle of my base, managing the production of Terraformers and Pelicans to transport them. He was kind of awkward at first; first building too many Terraformers and then overproducing on Pelicans, before got the hang of it and balanced both.

"I like building." Little1 speaks, his words transmitted across the network.

"You're free to do that as much as you want." I say back.

"Oh." Comes the reply. The tone was flat and dead, Little1 having not yet figured out tones and inflections. Still, I don't need my access to his code for me to figure out that he's happy about it.

In the meantime, I put the finishing touches on a re-entry pod.

Another thing I'd found out about the Teleporter; the larger the distance it was trying to send something without a receiving gate, the more 'drift' that existed, drift being how far off the mark you were likely to end up. With on-site telemetry data and sufficient energy, it was possible to cut down on that drift, but considering that I didn't have the former, I was taking it safe and teleporting into orbit. The controlled descent was great for landing where I actually wanted to land, as well as landing safely.

Also functioned fairly well for clearing the landing zone. Having to reclaim all the trees and rocks that scattered the ground did a surprising number on how long it took to establish a base. Not really a problem later on in the stage, when the Fabricator amounts were high enough to simply strip entire forests in a second or two, but in the beginning it could be quite a nuisance. It was a pretty effective mechanism, gotta admit.

Also impressive, considering most of the blast wave came from the speed of the re-entry pod. That most of the area got cleared and the Commander inside didn't suffer so much as a scratch suggested some pretty fucking effective cushioning, or at least some kind of inertial manipulation being involved. It was the former, actually; the Commander was simply tough enough that the cushioning stopped enough of the force to allow the Commander's armor could tank the rest without a problem.

The one problem with it was actually reaching that velocity. Going too slow meant that there was time for anti-orbital defenses (Umbrella's, usually) to shoot the pod out of the sky, while going too fast rendered the cushioning useless. The re-entry pod had some thrusters on the back, but most of the speed came from an accelerator array that it was mounted on. Mostly, that was because Teleporters conserved the momentum of those passing through, which was quite useful.

Going to have to explore that property, actually. If I built a pair of Teleporters, vertically with one above the other and connected them, then introduced a mass to be accelerated by gravity -or better yet, an electromagnetic accelerator coupling-, could I get it up to C-fractional speeds and then use it as a planetary bombardment option? I'd have to have the mass in a vacuum so I could get the most speed out of it and not have friction ruin everything, but that wasn't really a problem. Teleporters could swap destinations and open portals just about instantly, so it wouldn't even have to be that tall, either.

Sure, there were a lot of things that could go wrong, but the possibilities.

Hmm. Really have to visit this later.

+++

Teleporter is ready and primed, seconds away from forging swirling blue portal that would send me 4.75 light years an instant. In the final moments of the launch, Little1 and I were having a conversation.

"Creator-Mother is going?"

"Yes."

"Can I follow?"

"If you want. Not yet though, wait until I tell you to. It could be dangerous."

Which was true, since I had little idea on what was actually in that system. Orbital Radar was good, but it wasn't that good. Good enough for picking up the larger things in the system, and for picking a good landing zone, but anything else?

Not a chance. Still, it worked well enough for my purposes.

"Okay."

Getting there Little1, getting there.

I activated the accelerator array, immediately feeling the inertial force when I did so, pressing me backwards into the re-entry pod. If I hadn't been a Commander, it might have actually bothered me, but this body had so many benefits it simply wasn't funny.

The Teleporter activated, tearing a breach in space. I watched the Energy count as it did so, and smiled as it drained less than .0001% of the full output. The resource network closed as I hit the portal, passing through and emerging in a flash of blue light several light years away. The portal collapsed behind me, though my communication systems still allowed me a connection. Little1 watched closely the majority of his attention focused on me.

The re-entry pod buffeted as it hit atmosphere, a trail of fire encasing it as it descended to the world beneath. The sensor suite immediately identified several probable Metal Deposits, though most were unfortunately far away. Nevertheless, I directed my pod towards the closest, a minute course change in the 12 or so seconds that I had left on my journey.

I noted an odd interference on the pod's sensors, but I wasn't particularly surprised about that. The re-entry pod, courtesy of its short-lived nature, did not have the most powerful sensors around. Or even the most reliable.

They were more or less designed for picking up clusters of metal that normally meant Metal deposits, and not much ease.

As I fell closer and closer, I eventually found the source of the interference; crystalline structures that were interacting oddly with the sensors, refracting and reflecting randomly, creating distortion. Not a problem for me, but for the re-entry pod, yeah...

That... reminded me far too much of Blue Sky's crystals in Supreme Commander. I hope not, if I have to deal with Aeon or Seraphim, I'm going to shoot someone.

The pod entered visual range, and in the three seconds I had before it crashed into the ground and cleared the entire surrounding area, I saw that the crystals were green instead of blue.

Whooh. Bullet dodged.

Wait, green crystal?

And the was the last thought I had before the pod slammed into the ground.

Log 8

+++

I bathed in sickly light, standing at ground zero of an explosion that had cleared the surrounding area.

By which; I mean that I stood inside a giant fucking crater. A crater much too big to have been caused by the re-entry pod alone. And I might have been concerned about that if I hadn't detected the runaway energetic reaction in the green crystal prior to it exploding in my face.

And wow. What a boom. My processes calculated the blast at a solid 1.76 megaton explosion, most of which had come from underground and had blown a trail of dust and rock into the atmosphere.

I can feel my armor begin a slow regeneration, repairing and regenerating on the honestly small amount of damage that had been done to it, taking the excess Metal that I was generating even as I bathed in superheated air. I'm fairly certain that auto-healing hadn't been a thing in the game, but whatever. I'll accept that.

Really small, considering. Yeah, sure, it hadn't been detonated in my face point blank and I'd had a lot of ground between me and the bulk of the explosion, but it had barely even hurt. None of my internal systems were damaged, and my armor had barely been touched. Kinda surprised that I wasn't thrown out, considering that the blast had been from underneath me and I wasn't that heavy.

Just how tough was I, anyway? I mean, there was 'tough', but then there was 'bathing in the fires of 1.76 megaton explosion and barely giving a fuck about it'. And I was sitting on the latter end of that scale.

Ooh. Wow, that's another heady feeling.

No, damn it, focus!

My sensors' cast out, identifying the surroundings, not at all helped by the recent explosion having caused a considerable interference, but still good enough to detect my immediate surroundings.

Nothing but crater. How surprising.

I noted a couple masses of green crystal nearby, crystals which had failed to go up in flames when I'd landed.

I also noted, at the edge of the crater, several 'veins' of said crystal sticking out of the ground. Also green. And growing.

I focused all my sensors on those crystals, an onslaught of information instantly appearing in my database. A number of properties appeared, estimated sizes and weight, energy content and potential use, but I didn't care for those. I was far more interested in the atomic structure.

And what I saw was quite discouraging. A shifting lattice of protons, held together and collected by a number of exotic heavy particles. I watched as that lattice came into contact with other matter, the heavy particles swinging around and colliding with the nucleus of the matter, breaking it apart in the case of the smaller nuclei, or knocking off proton and neutrons in the larger and heavier nuclei. I watched as a few of those protons were captured by the lattice, causing it to shift and grow further. And I knew of only one thing that was remotely like that.

Tiberium.

Fuck.

+++

The air was all but impregnated with Tiberium lattices. I couldn't help but notice as the crystal structures impacted with my armor. It might have been much more concerning if my armor was actually being assimilated, but it wasn't. I'd noted minor energy surges every time they came into contact with me, repulsing them before they had a chance to do damage, which made me wonder if the Progenitors had experience with this kind of thing.

Progenitor Super Science, everyone.

Self-replicating Strange Matter bullshit isn't fun.

Right now I was just trying to find a spot of solid ground that wasn't god-damned covered in Tiberium. This place is clearly a Red Zone, or perhaps a Yellow bordering on Red Zone, and Tiberium was just as bad as god-damned lava. I had half a mind to shoot it away, but that would probably set off yet another energetic exothermic reaction, so I held off for now.

Also looking for a Metal Deposit. The one I'd landed near kinda... wasn't, anymore. Couldn't say I was too surprised about that, even if it was inconvenient. At least I'm not too far away from flat, mostly Tiberium free ground to build on.

Need to figure out where I am in the timeline, too. Post... 2034, wasn't it? Before the advent of the Tiberium Control Network, obviously, but is this before or after the Scrin? Definitely wouldn't mind getting my hands on some Scrin technology, if I could make use of it, but there were also a couple things in the GDI and Nod arsenals that I'd like to utilise.

Also, the Tacitus. That'd be a great thing to get my non-existent hands on; lots of very useful information hidden within.

Including, if I remembered correctly, the Tiberium Control Network. Or the things that lead to the TCN, at least. Either would be good for me, alongside all the other information within.

I came to a stop in range of a Metal deposit, and promptly plunked down the Extractor a couple seconds later.

And so the cycle starts again.

Log 9

+++

I finished the construction of an Air Factory, turning around and starting on a second Energy Generator. They aren't cheap, and with Metal being as unfortunately rare as it currently is, it's putting a fair bit of strain on my current economy.

A pair of Fireflies finished building before my Power Generator did, both immediately heading off in separate directions, away from the Tiberium crystals that almost seemed to be growing in my direction. I hadn't failed to note that growth seemed a lot more focused, nor the 50% increase in airborne clusters that had been encountering me in such a short amount of time. It wasn't a problem, thankfully, for either myself or my burgeoning base, my buildings and units being equipped with the same defensive energy field as I myself was.

I wasn't quite willing to test that against the full crystal, though. Airborne Tiberium crystals got repelled just fine, but full scale? Test it later, not willing to risk it now.

Might also be a bit more to that whole 'Tiberium is sentient' notion in C&C than I'd initially thought. Intelligently heading in my direction is kind of strange for a crystal, even if said crystal is Tiberium.

One Tiberium crystal sprouted out of the ground, slowly moving towards my Generator. It'd take a while to get there, even I left it alone, but...

I raised my arm and shot at it, sending a bolt of superheated plasma on the verge of energy conversion at it, enjoying the following pretty explosion as it annihilated the entire crystal, alongside a fair bit more from underground.

The Tiberium in the surrounding environment seemed to shudder, the growth slowing a minute amount.

Definitely a bit more to the Tiberium is sentient theory.

I waited for my Metal to regenerate a little, starting a Fabricator while it did so. Even alone, my generation was high enough to offset the cost, but with the Generators and Extractor, it was boost quite a bit more.

I had it build a Radar, still mindful of my income, before I sent the Fabricator off, further away to scan for uninfested areas. Somewhere I could actually work from without worrying would be great, especially when I had to deal with hostile Tiberium.

Wish I had more Extractors. Hell, even a couple metal husks would do, so I could just reclaim it and get.. the... ball... rolling.

Reclaim.

Hmm.

I turned around, towards a Tiberium Crystal that was even now growing out of the ground, raising not my weapon arm, but my Fabricator arm. I felt my internal systems switch, from constructive to reclamatory, before I activated them.

My scanners activated, mapping out the atomic and molecular structure of the crystal, identifying the constituent particles, before I spat green globs of nanotech at it.

I could see the Tiberium lattice interact with my nanobots, larger heavy particles attempting to smash apart the nuclei and failing?!

What the fuck?

My nanotech globs sheathed themselves in an energy field similar to the energy that blocked the Tiberium particles from interacting with my armor and hull, 'bouncing' the heavy particles away without them causing any damage.

I watched as my nanotech went to work in turn, directing said field into the Tiberium, dissolving molecular bonds and subsequently ripping the protons straight out of the lattice, capturing both them, and free electrons and neutrons, spinning and accelerating them in my direction, where my Fabricator captured them and promptly dumped all three kinds of particles together into my Resource Core, where they were fusion ha'd and transformed into Metal that was dumped into my storage.

Fucking Progenitors and their Super Science, man. It takes a special kind of bullshit to do what the Commanders did, yet the Progenitors had clearly proven their mastery over it.

Didn't mean that I wasn't going to abuse the crap out of it.

+++

Tiberium has stopped growing in my direction so much.

Oh, it was still growing, but it was the slow growth of converting everything and surrounding me. No more crystals were growing out of the ground, and the amount of Tiberium spores that were hitting me had decreased by 90%.

Which still meant that they were hitting me occasionally, but most of them were being carried on air currents, not being launched at me by the surroundings.

I am 98% certain that Tiberium is, if not truly sapient, at least possessing of some form of self-awareness. The crystal's shifting actions simply didn't make much sense, and that was about the only explanation I had for it other than 'just because'.

Some inner part of me itched to study it.

But that can come later.

+++

I reclaimed more Tiberium crystal whenever I came close to lacking Metal, which was often and constantly, courtesy of three Fabricators constructing behind me. Three more Generators had come online, supplying them with the energy they needed to go full out.

Gotta admit, Tiberium is a hell of an economy booster. I might actually make use of it later if I can ever get some control over it. Then it would be useful without destroying and contaminating everything. All this Alpha, Beta and Gamma radiation around isn't healthy for organic beings. No problem for me, yeah, but I don't exactly condone genocide, which is what Tiberium will do if it runs rampant for long enough.

My Fabricators started on an Orbital Radar, something I'd be needing if I didn't want to run into whatever orbital infrastructure existed around this planet. Don't want to run into a GDI Ion Cannon, having one of those things firing at me would suck.

Even if I was fairly certain I could survive one, I'd rather not test it.

In the meantime, I reclaimed more Tiberium.

+++

I am a god damned idiot.

Orbital Radar is online. I am most definitely in the Sol System. Which is strange, abnormal and considerably concerning.

'Why' was simple. I hadn't been teleporting into a replica of the Sol system.

I had been teleporting to a system with a Blue Giant star within.

Little1 insists that's where he's picking up the source of my communication signals. Though, he notes, he's not getting information from said system.

I, in turn, am picking him up from 4.75 light years away.

There are no stars or solar systems 4.75 light years away. Alpha Centauri is 4.24 light years, Barnard's Star is 5.96 light years, and there is no little Red Dwarf that I'd started in.

I built a teleporter and connected to one of the ones in the system, which would instantaneously dropping my energy to zero if I actually tried to open said portal, but I considered it good enough that I could form that connection if I had to.

The only explanation that I have is that ROB is screwing around again. That's the only thing that makes any amount of sense, and I really don't like it.

God damn it ROB.

Posting a tad bit early on account of not going to be available when the normal schedule time comes up.

Log 10

+++

My Radar pinged as it detected a pair of airborne objects, both travelling just shy of twice the speed of sound, both quite high in the air.

Higher than what I suspected was the normal maximum height airborne Tiberium crystals would reach, though I couldn't be too sure of that, what with the recent megaton explosion and everything.

Probably a pair of spy planes, what with the recent megaton explosion and everything.

I turned around and constructed a Galata just incase, so I'd have something else to shoot at them if things went pear shaped.

Never could be too safe, after all.

+++

The planes flew overhead, close enough for me to pick up on the radio chatter between them, even through the interference being generated by all the Tiberium.

They haven't seen me.

I'd forgotten about it, but everything in my army was equipped with stealth, stealth that was rated against our own detection equipment.

GDI is advanced, don't get me wrong, but there's the futuristic technology of the GDI and Nod, and then there's me.

There's... no real comparison.

Going to exploit the shit out of that, though. Press my stealth advantage a bit further and see how far I can get before I get found out.

With any luck, I can get the technologies I want without getting discovered.

I want the Scrin's wormhole tech, damn it. It could be so god-damned useful, just warping in hundreds upon hundreds of units from another solar system, not needing to construct them on site, saving hours of time.

Ugu~

I wantedit.

I really do hope I haven't missed that particular part of the conflict, though I guess I'll be finding out when I actually come across some life. Which should be soon, since, you know, planes and shit.

+++

Planes are circling the crater left where I had landed, a wide ark higher up in the atmosphere, out of the storm and above the cloud layer.

Though, that wasn't actually helping them considering just how much material had been thrown up into the air when the Tiberium veins had exploded. A giant a plume of dust was still there, and I hadn't failed to miss the smaller falling chunks of rock when I had made my way out of the crater.

In hindsight, that may or may not have been another cause as to why they haven't seen me. Lots of dust in the air, but I imagine the stealth systems certainly didn't help. Got to test its effectiveness at some point, too. I know that I have some visible-spectrum cloaking, but how good is that? Is it effective and reliable enough that I could send some bots into GDI territory to listen in on communications when I actually find said territory?

Because that'd be useful. Probably wouldn't work as well with Nod given how that particular organisation is structured.

Nod... could be a bit problematic, actually. I'm certain that if I really wanted to kill them, they wouldn't be able to stop me, even if Kane got involved. Problem is, naturally, that Nod isn't a solid, all-there organisation that is visible. Any war against them would just about inevitably draw in civilians, people unaffiliated with Nod who would absolutely suffer on a campaign. Can't go full von-neumann murder machine if I wanted to prevent deaths.

I'm reasonably certain that I'm an outside context problem for Kane. The Scrin he expected thanks to the Shards of the Tacitus he had, but I'm fairly certain the Tacitus isn't magical enough to know that I'm here.

Tacitus is the keystone to all of this. It has the knowledge for the Tiberium Control Network needed to save this planet, it has the knowledge Kane wants to seek his Ascension, I'm fairly certain that if the Scrin knew about it they'd either want it or want to destroy it.

I wanted it because of the technology within. Including but most certainly not limited to the Tiberium Control Network, and whatever other information it has on the Scrin and Scrin technology.

Perhaps the easiest way to get it would be to wait until LEGION and... Alexa Kovacs, wasn't it?- captured it from the GDI facility in China. Problem with that is that, by then, the Tacitus was becoming unstable and LEGION had to interface with it to restabilize it. Which Alexa fucked up by shutting him down for years.

Capturing it beforehand... might allow me to bypass that, but would probably lead to my presence being revealed to GDI, and probably Nod. If it did become unstable thereafter, it would definitely reveal its location to LEGION, but given that I was operating within the Red Zone, there wouldn't be too much that he could do about it.

If I could stabilize it on my own... The possibilities.

What to do, what to do, what to do... 


	2. Chapter 2: Logs 11-20

Log 11

Planes have left, heading back in the direction they came. I made sure to note down that direction, because there was probably a GDI base thataways.

I had a Firefly follow them, flying low to escape notice, its smaller profile and stealth systems helping with that. It'll stop when it finds signs of civilization, where I could hopefully listen in on broadcasts and the like.

If I could get the location of GDI bases, abandoned or otherwise, that'd be helpful to say the least.

In the meantime, I checked up on the Orbital Radar.

That thing had a hell of a range, let me tell ya.

Lots of shit in orbit, satellites and satellites and satellites.

Ion Cannons, orbital infrastructure, communications satellites, millions upon millions upon millions of pieces orbital debris and waste.

I'm not seeing the Philadelphia station up there. Coupled with the abnormal amount of debris... everywhere and Tiberium's current form, I'd say that it was probably destroyed.

Which puts me at during the Third Tiberium War, at the least.

I also picked up an odd interference near the edge of the solar system, just past Pluto, similar to the interference I got from Tiberium.

I was 99.99% certain that was the Scrin.

If they're not here yet, or even coming yet, that probably means that the Liquid Tiberium Bomb hasn't been detonated yet, which in turn means that Temple Prime is still intact, placing me at somewhere between 2047 and 2049.

Hope they were coming soon. I'm not going to be waiting for years, even if I have to go to them rather than have them come here.

Alrighty... Simple enough.

Planning time.

First things first; amultiple bases of operations. Speed and stealth are two advantages I have, so I should abuse the shit out of them until such a time that I'm either forced to work in the open, I get what I want or stealth becomes useless.

Second; operation objectives.

What do I want?

Well, starting and reiterating; the technology of the GDI, Nod and Scrin factions. Preferably all of it, but specifically: GDI Firestorm, harmonic and rapid construction technologies; Nod Obelisk, Stealth, Tiberium and Cyborg technology; Scrin wormhole, phase, Tiberium, Teleportation and mind-control technology.

Firestorm would be good to cover a key lack in my technology; defensive shields / area denial by way of force fields rather than lasers and missiles. Not that there was anything wrong with lasers and missiles, force fields just held a different kind of appeal, speaking as the one who went All The Shields, All The Time in SupCom.

Harmonic technologies for more offensive and defensive options. Always pays to have more of both, especially since most technology I already had access to defaulted to horribly lethal with a side of ohgodwhy. Neutronium artillery shells, nuclear weapons, a variety of lethal lasers and plasma weapons, and, of course, gigantic death bots, death tanks and death planes in every other direction.

Great for death, destruction, chaos and mayhem.

Not so great when you're not trying to go full out war.

Variety is helpful.

Rapid construction technologies; including MCV's. If there was anything in there compatible with my own technology, it could help quite a bit. Nod's and Scrin's tech was also included in that, for much the same reasons.

Nod's stuff was obvious. Obelisks of Light for that extra defensive option, which was a bit different to my own laser towers.

Stealth, again, if it was compatible with any of my stuff, would be another layer of protective technologies.

Tiberium technologies was obvious, as Nod had a much more advanced understanding of Tiberium and the uses of it than GDI did. Scrin stuff was, subsequently, equally important if I could capture it, since they were much further beyond Nod than Nod had been ahead of GDI.

Cyborg was equally obvious; variety and capabilities. The bots that I already had access to were big, fast and good at killing. And not much else; Cyborgs offer a different kind of edge that could be useful in different kinds of situations.

Scrin stuff was the most important things I was after. I was going to try my hardest to get my hands on it.

Wormholes, naturally, offer an element of strategic and tactical mobility, separate from my Teleporters that, quite simply, weren't feasible to use in any conflict that was being perpetuated on a short-term scale. Mostly because any such conflict would be over long before I got enough Energy Generators up to feed the Teleporter-to-anywhere feature. Scrin wormholes didn't seem to eat up nearly as much power as my own did. Either that or they had superior energy generation, either one would be useful.

Phase technology is also hella-useful, given that it rendered things effectively invulnerable to conventional and non-exotic attack. Without figuring out a way to bypass or disable the phasing on Thresholds, there was simply nothing I could do about them unless I destroyed them prior to being fully constructed. Admittedly not that hard for me, given how the GDI managed it with their comparatively more limited technology and only missed Threshold 19 because Nod intervened and defended it. If I could replicate that effect for my own structures and units, well...

The Scrin's Tiberium-tech and knowledge is useful for aforementioned reasons.

Personal-teleporters aren't a thing in my army. Getting my hands on them would prove to be such a hilarious tactical benefit that I'm not sure I could express it fully without breaking down into laughter entirely. Moving the Commander to safety, navigation, executing surprise strikes, dodging, closing distances... so many uses, if perhaps limited in range compared to Wormholes.

Mind-Control, while perhaps unethical, inspiring of hundreds of morality debates and feelings of ill-at-ease, is still an incredibly useful tool when used correctly and in the right situations. If nothing else, simply having the option of Mind-Control is better than not having it, even if I never actually use the tech.

Getting off-track again.

Other things I need is the Tacitus; mostly for technology and the many times aforementioned Tiberium Control Network.

I need the Tiberium Control Network because of how easy it would make it to save this planet from eventually being converted entirely into Tiberium, or from being harvested by the Scrin. For all of how this world kind of sucks and is facing war every couple of years to decades, there are still billions of people living here that I don't want to see killed. I did not approve of genocide and I was going to try to prevent it, if at all possible.

That about sums it up.

Acquire technology, 'borrow' the Tacitus forever, save the world.

Simple enough.

Log 12

My Fireflies have followed the aircraft to a base.

There is slightly less Tiberium there then there is everywhere else, perhaps courtesy of the GDI harvesters currently... harvesting Tiberium.

There's only 2, but, well, Tiberium everywhere.

My Fireflies came into range of the base, automatically intercepting a transmission from the unpacked MCV near the center.

'- nothing?'

'Apparently. The pilots didn't see anything, nor did the scanners they have.'

'Great. 2 megaton explosion in the middle of Italy, and we have no idea what caused it.'

'I'm sure InOps will figure it out eventually.'

'On a good day, InOps might be able to tell us that Tiberium is green. Pack up and get out of there, the Commander is less than an hour away from Sarajevo, and I want someone covering him so he can focus.'

'Yes sir.'

Well, that's interesting.

Both that my stealth was confirmed, and that Sarajevo is going to be assaulted.

Sarajevo is where Temple Prime is located.

If I remember correctly, anyway.

Which gives me a nice, solid timeline.

That is; less than an hour before Temple Prime goes up in a 2 gigaton explosion.

I definitely don't want to be around for that one.

At least I know where I am now.

Italy.

Smack dab in the middle of the largest Red Zone on the planet, soon to be host to the Scrin's Relay Node at Tiber River (otherwise known as Ground Zero), and Threshold 19 at Rome.

Joy.

The GDI base is being packed up.

There wasn't much over there, just the pair of Harvesters, a Tiberium Refinery, the Construction Yard and the Airfield.

All of which looked brand spanking new, but that was an asides.

I had my Firefly continue to follow them, intel was always useful.

Tiberium sure is useful.

I'd prefer Metal Deposits, but in the absence of the latter, the former will do. In fact, I might have even used them both in conjuction, if I wasn't 98% certain that the reason there was so little of the latter was because of the former.

Still, easy matter.

My Fabricators finished a T2 Air Factory, supported by the material intake from both myself and another set of Fabricators reclaiming Tiberium enmasse. That I had access to flying Fabricators made this process so much easier and quicker, the flight doing more than a few favors to reclaiming ground.

God damn it would have sucked to have been limited to ground only. Limited by speed and terrain... ugh, disgusting.

Air Fabricators are awesome.

Speaking of; T2 Fabricator.

I want some T2 Radar. T1 is nice, yeah, but T2 is a hell of a thing. Double the range, a more powerful sensor package that could pierce through all of this interference.

That it'd effectively double my normal Metal intake was a side effect. Naturally, of course, completely unintentional. As was most certainly the case with my Energy generation, too.

Totally unintentional.

Just one Fabricator for now. First the T2 Radar, then the Extractor, then the Generator.

My other T1 Fabricators continue to reclaim Tiberium, slowly but surely feeding my pair of Metal Storages.

I turned around to assist my Fabricator with the Radar array, noting the lack of Tiberium in my immediate area, a courtesy of my continuous reclaiming.

T2 Radar is hilariously overpowered.

Interference? What's that?

But more seriously, T2 Radar is not giving a fuck about the interference that both my Orbital Radar and my T1 Radar had encountered. Didn't have nearly the same range as the former, though it had double the radius of the latter.

'Advanced Radar' is, much like the Orbital and Deepspace Radar, not quite accurate as a name, given that Radar was only a single part out of... 9? different systems it operated off, but the name was simple enough that its purpose was conveyed in two words.

And I guess that's all that matters, isn't it.

Anyway, yeah, Italy.

The Radar is overpowered enough that I can get a good map of everything within 1200 kilometers, and a less detailed scan of the terrain up to about 3600 Kilometers. I'm somewhat west to a place called Bari, a coastal town. I've been there before, actually, nice place if I remember correctly. Then again, that was years ago.

The T1 Radar had, thanks to the interference, barely been able to cut to 150 KM.

Sarajevo is about 323~ KM from Bari, and as such is about 350~ KM from me.

I'll note that yes, I can detect Temple Prime. From 350 kilometers away. Really hits home on the Commanders being planetary siege units thing.

Oh, and Progenitor Super Science, but that was a given.

It might have been a bit harder if Nod had attempted to stealth the place, but, well, they didn't.

Oh well, their loss, my gain.

Log 13

Temple Prime isn't the only thing I can detect. There's Tiberium crystals in every other direction, certainly, but there's also a few more things of interest.

There's a group of GDI vehicles heading towards Temple Prime; presumably the same group in-game that assaulted the wars and eventually destroyed the Ion Disruption Towers. I could see some of GDI's troops down in Albania, where they had established a foothold into Nod Territory.

GDI weren't the only ones running around, there were a couple Nod bases here and there. The Tiberium concentrations in those areas seemed lesser than the immediate surroundings, so I guessed that Nod was mining those areas. I marked all three as targets of opportunity, pending recon. Grabbing some of Nod's technology this early would be quite helpful, especially since it would probably let me grab GDI's tech a bit easier.

There were also a couple of small buildings here and there, filled with what my Radar insisted were moving Tiberium crystals intermixed with organic matter.

The Forgotten, probably. See if I can't help them when I get my hands on the Tacitus/Scrin Tech, if they want the help.

I sent off 7 of Fireflies to each, one to each of the three bases, 4 to the structures that were in every other direction. I also sent three T1 Fabricators to each base, hoping to get as much tech as I could before Sarajevo blows up.

First, and closest, base is a golden opportunity. There is a Construction Yard, small amounts of people, no defenses, a single Reactor and two refineries. I don't think this particular group was meant to be out there for long, since all they're doing is mining Tiberium.

I had my Fabricator build a Teleporter while I, for the second time since I awoke as a Delta Commander, constructed a T1 Bot Factory.

I rapidly constructed a few Doxes, ordering them to line up in front of the Teleporter.

Doxes... Doxes were fun. Cheap, weak, plentiful and surprisingly painful in large numbers. Nevermind that they were still several-meter tall robots, and thus quite a bit tougher than one might have thought, given their... popcorny nature in the game.

Don't get me wrong, still popcorn. But popcorny in that hilariously advanced kill-bot way.

To go alongside them; several Fabricators, for capturing. A given, since Bots were a tad bit sneakier than Aircraft.

The Teleporter came online, and I promptly opened a connection and sent my small cadre of Bots through. Not too long though, I closed the connection the instant after they were through.

No point in taking any chances, is there?

I hadn't had the Teleporter built within visual range. It was actually fairly far away, but not nearly so far as to inconvenience me.

My Doxes and Fabricators are stealthy. To Nod, anyway. I had my Doxes cover the few entrances and exits into and out of the clearing where the Nod Construction Yard was currently housed.

My Fabricators, on the other hand, kept walking straight up to the various buildings; the two Refineries, the Reactor and the Construction Yard.

Nothing reacted when they got close.

Not even when my Fabricators came close enough to start picking up on the conversations going on inside the Construction Yard.

There wasn't much, the Construction Yard itself seemed understaffed, with few people on the inside.

Delicately, the Fabricators at the Construction Yard stepped closer, raising their arms and carefully spraying a small amount of nano-globs at it.

The nanobots went to work quickly, spreading out and seeking ways into the structure, perfectly coordinating as a swarm. Some entered gaps in the structure, seeking out wiring and power, before tracing both to the inside, into the command center. Finally, a group reached the computer system, before stilling as they waited for the other groups to do their work.

I directed them towards communication arrays, alarms and power. I didn't want Nod to know that I was there, so I wouldn't give them a clue that anything was wrong.

One group took control of the communication arrays, preventing a potential broadcast that would give up the game, all the while continuing to broadcast all-clears to Nod's HQ. Another took over the alarms, preventing those that were here from doing something... unfortunate.

With those potential concerns out of the way, the first group promptly started to interface with the computer, taking it over silently, quickly and efficiently. There were a multitude of designs hard-saved into the Construction Yard's database, which I didn't hesitate in copying into my own. Blueprints, mostly, but there were also a few maps of the area that I happily took.

Others weren't, the computer merely accessing the designs from a remote terminal elsewhere. I copied as much of those as I could, sending information requests and receiving it automatically soon after. Not too much, though, I was capable of getting the designs, but the underlying principles behind the technology was something had got an immediate information-denied reply, which would make it that much harder to adapt the technology to my purposes.

I noted that one of the people inside the commander center was reading a book; 'Kane: The Messiah'.

I rolled my nonexistent eyes.

I tracked the signals as they came and went, attempting to locate the place where the information was being broadcasted from so I could simply go and hack that. Each request, each sent signal shaved off kilometers, narrowing it down.

France, I noted. Perhaps underground. Every time it sent a transmission, I nailed down the area further and further, eventually restricting it to a relatively small area only a few kilometers across.

Finally, having collected as much data as I could in such a short amount of time, I had my nanobots self-destruct, leaving no trace of my... interference. Following that, I had my Bots retreat through the Teleporter, then had my Fabricator non-violently reclaim my teleporter as a whole.

Right, time to head to France.

Due to another schedule conflict, you guys get this one 2 and a half hours earlier.

Log 14

There is a GDI Satellite swinging into geosynchronous orbit above Temple Prime.

That is; an Ion Cannon Satellite.

The Liquid Tiberium Bomb is going to be detonated soon, which means that a significant portion of europe is going to get showered in radioactive materials.

I guess I have about 50 minutes before that satellite lights up and that bomb goes off. I'm outside of the blast radius, and whatever does hit me shouldn't have nearly enough of a punch to be a threat.

I could stop it if I wanted to. Send a Fabricator over, not even close to the battlefield, just build an Umbrella and have it shoot down the satellite; prevent the bomb from going off and prevent most of eastern europe from being devastated.

I saw the explosion on a computer screen, once. It had been beautiful, when I hadn't thought about all the lives being lost because of it. I'm having trouble waiting to see what it will look like in real life.

The explosion is going to kill a lot of people.

The Scrin were going to kill even more.

Ground Zero, Tiber River; soon to be host to the Scrin's oh-so-precious Relay Node, which would allow them to survive and operate upon the Earth. The second I gained access to the Scrin's technology, I fully intended to bomb it into oblivion, alongside the Scrin's Phase Generators and Threshold Towers.

It would save a lot of lives, it would kill the Scrin, and it would handily prevent Kane's Ascension in one go. Can't wait.

But until then, I burrowed into the ground. Or, rather, a hoard of Bot Fabricators did, slowly constructing an underground compound, a storage area for my units, where I could hold a lot of them, hopefully without drawing any more attention that was strictly necessary.

Inside, I was going to store bomber and fighters. Lots and lots of bombers and fighters. The fighters for the express purpose of protecting the bombers, and the bombers for the express purpose of bombarding the shit out of the Scrin's Relay Node, Phase Generators and Thresholds.

The phrase 'blot out the sun' comes to mind, which is what I fully intend to do when the time comes. I'll have one sun-blotting layer made entirely out of missiles, another made entirely out of bombers, and another made entirely out of fighters.

And maybe a fourth made out of SXX Laser Platforms.

My Fabricator slowly passed through the clouds, heading towards France. Or, more specifically, that one particular 8-kilometer-wide circle where I had pinned down Nod's Intelligence Database.

There were less Tiberium gasses there, in the Yellow Zone compared to the Red Zone. I'm not surprised.

I might have been worried about Nod detection, but my Fabricator's stealth had been proven so far. Time to grab the rest of Nod's stuff.

Fabricator arrived. I was right, Nod's Intelligence Database was underground.

Cleverly hidden actually, but somewhat useless thanks to the fact that I could detect the signals it was letting off.

It was self powered, hooked in a network of subterranean tunnels that spanned quite far. Further than my Fabricator's sensors could detect, actually.

Nod's fabled Global Subterranean Network? Perhaps.

But yeah, Intelligence Database. Nod was big on hidden backups, I guess. I don't think that GDI would have been able to find it, especially since France was a Nod-controlled Yellow Zone, but I digress.

I sent a Bot Fabricator into the tunnels, directing it through the labyrinthine maze and straight towards the Intelligence Database.

It was, as was probably natural of a hidden, self-powered, buried back-up node, undefended. There was nobody nearby, nor were there any static defenses aside from easily-bypassed traps, and easier broken disguises.

When my Fabricator finally got close, I had it hacked the crap out of that thing.

And it contained just about everything I wanted.

Nod's technology, Nod's intel, Nod's important locations and plans. Fucking perfect, really.

Seems that after the Brotherhood Archives had been destroyed, Kane had all the important information decentralized so he wouldn't lose another couple of centuries worth of technology and research should something happen to important, central building. Again.

To that end, these Intelligence Database Nodes, which had been placed throughout the world, throughout the Subterranean Tunnel Network.

It filled in the gaps that I had from the Construction Yard from before. I already had the blueprints for quite a bit of Nod's normal military technology, but it was somewhat more lacking in the principles and the technology behind said blueprints, two things that I didn't want to attempt to figure out on my own. I probably could have done it, but the time investment behind such wasn't something that I wanted to do.

Anyway- Nod tech.

It's in here, it's useful.

Nod's knowledge of Tiberium is advanced and useful. I looked through the scientific studies they'd done on it, read the notes that Nod's scientists had placed for it. I checked their theories, downloaded their ideas, copied and categorized every single piece of technology they used it for. Chemical weapons, explosive devices, power plants.

Liquid Tiberium.

I saved it all, and moved on.

I took the Obelisk technology, analyzing how the technology worked, how the complex network of mirrors and focusses worked and acted, how energy was gathered and stored, then ultimately released as a blast of angry doom. Saved it. Saved the derivative laser technologies, too, including the laser weapons both handheld and vehicle, as well as the Laser Walls and other laser techs.

Then came the construction technologies. The Construction Yard built prefabricated modules, which were then deployed in the field to unfold into the buildings they represented. I probably wouldn't be able to use the same technique in my own buildings, as they simply weren't designed that way, but there were other things I could do with that technology.

I took the data that Nod had on subterranean vehicles, drills, workers, supports, everything. Never know when it might be useful, when I could adapt it for something else later on.

I hit upon Nod's knowledge of Cyborg Technology, and downloaded all of it. They were considerably powerful and complex for their size, and I had no doubt that I would be making use of them at some point in the future. Subsequent in the Cyborg knowledge what Nod's genetic knowledge; specifically genetic enhancement, but also a lot of knowledge about the human body in general. I could definitely make use of that, too.

Last was Nod's Stealth technology. Download, download, download. Adaptive camouflage bubble, cloaking fields, Stealth Tank, Specter Artillery vehicle, Disruption pods and the Disruption Towers. I took it all, and left nothing behind.

Then I started looking into other things.

Nod's databases are surprisingly extensive. They had a lot of information about GDI; their communication channels, their bases, locations of their research facilities, and more.

I took all of it.

I was quite interested in the first.

I tried not to think about all the people who'll die from the explosion. Who would die, from the resultant secondary effects. Who would suffer, from the Scrin's eventual invasion, GDI and Nod's continued conflict.

The thoughts crept up on me regardless.

The bomb... 50 minutes was enough time to stop GDI from detonating it. Even from this distance, by force.

Millions will lose their lives. I could prevent it; it'd be simple. Easy, even; yet I have taken any of the steps to do so. Because I wanted tech.

The Scrin's tech.

If I act, I can save countless lives.

But, in turn, there was the possibility that I could lose the tech that the Scrin would offer me.

Millions of lives just for the Scrin's tech. Putting it lightly; I'd be kind of a bitch if I let that happen, wouldn't I?

But the question is, how greedy am I, and how willing am I to throw away lives?

heh

What a stupid question.

Log 15

It wasn't worth it.

Millions of people shouldn't suffer for it.

I made a call.

Quite literally, made a call.

I drew on Nod's knowledge of communication networks, and then promptly spliced my own signal into them.

Nod had long since figured out how to do that, and longer still communicate without being traced, so I simply copied it.

Fun fact; Nod had the phone number of Redmond Boyle; GDI's current Director.

And now, so did I.

"Who is this?" Came the deep voice of Director Boyle.

Hmm.

"My name is unimportant, Director."

"Who is this?" He repeated, his tone significantly lower, as if to sound threatening.

Ha.

"I have important information about Nod, Director. Specifically; information about Nod's Liquid Tiberium Bomb."

There was a pause on the other side of the line, a slight lag involved thanks to sheer distance.

"Go on." He stated, suspicion evident in his tone.

"They are currently storing the Liquid Tiberium Bomb underneath Temple Prime. I would advise against using the Ion Cannon on that location, Director, it will cause the bomb to detonate and lay waste to a considerably large portion of Europe. Millions will die."

"Who are you?" He asked.

"That matter is currently irrelevant."

I hung up.

Boyle is an idiot, but I don't think he's stupid enough to order the Ion Cannon Strike if he knows the Liquid Tiberium Bomb is there.

I hope he isn't that stupid.

I put Nod's technology to good use.

By which, I meant that I hid more and more of my base underground. My Energy Generators worked just as well underground as they did above ground; just about flawlessly. Tiberium isn't a problem, my structures proved just as resilient to the solid material as they did to the Tiberium gasses. It was the exact same defense that my nanobots had been using, which was quite useful.

Nod had been unable to make use of most of their subterranean technology thanks to the underground, chaotic crystal growth of Tiberium, which led to Tiberium poisoning in both vehicles and infantry, something that Nod had been unable to stop.

Something that wasn't a problem for me. I had a fleet of Bot Fabricators working; digging tunnels and caverns. The caverns I filled with buildings, while I expanded and reinforced the tunnel network so that an unfortunate quake wouldn't cave everything in and require my Fabricators to dig everything out again.

I would not want to be the unfortunate shmuck raiding this place, got to admit. Long, metal hallways, a complete lack of cover, lacking in light, detection systems that were perfectly capable of monitoring everything within, dozens of factories that would be extremely eager to start churning out hundreds of tanks and bots which will be so hilariously lethal in such a wide open environment.

If it were me, I'd just nuke it to oblivion instead. Subterranean doesn't work so well when you're fighting other Commanders, since you'd be all but conceding the above ground and all the open space to your enemy. Not worth it; unless you were fortifying the system and held a presence beforehand.

Or if you were fighting low-tech beings that didn't have the capacity to get at you, in one of the most immediately hostile areas known to their kind, when they didn't have a clue about your existence or your capabilities at all.

Hah.

All the rock and Tiberium that I'm reclaiming is actually fueling my growth here; what I get is more than what I spend constructing the supports, the buildings, and blocking off the buildings that don't need access to the hallways. Which is so many of them; all my Generators are blocked off, alongside my storages and my Advanced Radar.

I feel like a Minecrafter.

I don't mind that feeling.

Boyle is, evidently, that fucking stupid.

I estimated 50 minutes.

I'd been spot on the mark.

The Ion Cannon is warming up even now, a multitude of targeting lasers spinning in a circle to come directly down in the center of Temple Prime.

Boyle is going to order it to fire, even after I gave him the warning.

Jesus fuck.

That's a callous bastard right there.

The beam itself was brief, a thin, white line that briefly split the sky, before it was drowned out entirely by a resounding thoom, a blinding flash of light, and a shockwave that I felt from three hundred and fifty kilometers away.

I was right.

It was pretty.

The shockwave buffeted my air units, temporarily throwing them off course and control. I was too heavy, on too stable a ground, to be thrown around like my Fabricators, Hummingbirds, Hornets and Bumblebees.

Staring into the light of the explosion was like staring at the sun, on this was soo much close, and seemed so much brighter. It might have seared the eyes of a normal human being, but I simply stood there and basked in it.

I was too far away to feel most of the force, though I nevertheless felt some of the power, even this far away. Tiny, Infinitesimal compared to the full strength, weakened so much that it failed to even damage my armor, but the sheer scale and distance involved made that a certain kind of impressive all on its own.

My burgeoning underground base felt the shockwaves, shaking it. The metal, and the supports held, thankfully.

The material being thrown into the air as also impressive, ionic particles thrown up and producing a blue static, seemingly, which reached up into atmosphere, then further into orbit.

It was mere minutes later that I began to detect movement from the Scrin ships, seeing their energy spike, and the ships themselves begin to accelerate, speeding towards Earth.

I ran some math. If they continued accelerating up until the halfway point, then decelerated at the same rate, they'd be here in...

18 hours.

Hmm.

I could turn the entire planet into a fortress in that time.

This was going to be a long wait, I can just tell.

Log 16

I tried not to think about the millions who just died. The millions who would die.

I failed, utterly.

It didn't quite set in at first; intellectually, I knew that all those people died, but at the time I'd been more immediately concerned about the explosion.

I'd distracted myself with it.

The anger came later, not when I considered the number of people who died, but when I considered the number of people.

A hundred is a tragedy, a thousand is a statistic.

All those people had lives. Good, bad, isolated, connected. They had families, friends, lovers and haters. They lived, and were just as complex as any other person on this planet, with hopes, dreams, desires.

It was only then that the anger began to set in.

I'd never been the most emotional person, not now, and not before when I was still Human. I just... never felt emotions too particularly strongly, things that affected others tended to not hold nearly as much as an effect on me.

It was almost hard to rile up that anger now. I considered the casualties and didn't feel the anger until I stopped and reminded myself that the casualties were people.

And even that didn't bring out the anger I'd expected.

I wasn't -initially- angry at Boyle for killing millions, I was angry at him because he'd ignored my warning. Until I considered the lives lost as lives, that was the only reason I was angry at him.

It was, to say the least, unlike me.

If I was being perfectly honest -and I was-, I could have very easily stopped the Strike.

If I'd made preparations. A single Umbrella would have been more than capable of wiping the Ion Cannon Satellite out of the sky, even from this distance.

And yet, I'd considered the warning I gave Boyle enough, and I hadn't even considered building an Anti-Orbital Defense.

Even when I knew full well that Boyle was the same idiot who, after witnessing the destruction a Liquid Tiberium Bomb, ordered another one to be built.

I'd given my warning, and had only given the barest consideration that Boyle might not have listened, a consideration that I hadn't acted on, hadn't planned a contingency just in case.

I was angry. Angry at him for ignoring my warning, angry at him for consigning millions to death.

Angry at myself for only barely doing anything to prevent it.

I really should have reminded myself who I was dealing with.

Director Boyle was the same idiot who ordered the construction of another Liquid Tiberium Bomb, after witnessing the destruction caused by the first, and then planned to drop it on Tiber River itself.

The worst Red Zone on the planet.

Where the consequences would be even worse.

They say Hindsight is 20/20.

God damn, I feel like an idiot.

Never again.

I approached that situation again and again, considered it from every angle, pointing out every flaw, every stupid decision; both on my behalf, and on Boyle's. I let myself feel angry, let my anger grow, and kept every idiotic decision in mind.

From prior experience, I knew it would galvanize me, I'd simply feel so angry at letting it happen, for being so stupid, that I wouldn't let it happen again.

The fires anger became the lava of rage.

A friend of mine had once said it best.

'When she's angry, she's irritable. When she's really really angry, she's calm, pleasant, and about three seconds away from planting the object of her ire face-first 6-feet into the ground.'

I made another call.

It took me several minutes to actually get through on this one, and I wasn't surprised about that at all.

I wasn't calling Director Boyle. I was directly contacting GDI's Command Center; bouncing my signal off of several of GDI's satellites.

I'd honestly would have had been surprised if my call had made it through on the first attempt; GDI's Command post probably would have been swamped, what with the recent gigaton explosion and everything.

"Director Redmond Boyle, General Jack Granger." I greeted cordially.

I was kind of surprised, actually. My voice didn't contain even a hint of the sheer fucking rage I felt for Boyle at that moment.

Nor the rage I felt at myself.

I couldn't actually see them, but I had no doubt that the both of them were still in GDI's Command Center. Audio only contact, in this case.

"You again..." Director Boyle sounds sullen, a glimpse of horror hidden within his voice.

"It's nice to see that you completely ignored my warning, Director. Millions have been consigned to death because of you."

"Who the hell are you?" Jack's voice buts in. I don't blame him.

"A concerned being," I note, purposely being as vague as possible. "One who would've been quite a bit happier if you'd listened to my advice and not Ion Strike'd Temple Prime."

"What are you talking about?" He sounds angry.

"Oh? The good Director here didn't tell you?" I asked, keeping a light tone. "Well, that's okay, I don't have any problems saying. I contacted the Director about an hour or so ago, informing him of the location of the Liquid Tiberium Bomb. I asked him, quite clearly, to not direct an Ion Strike on that area, as it would detonate the bomb. Fast forward an hour, and here I am, talking to you about doing the one thing that I asked you not to do."

There was silence on the other side.

I opened a visual feed through, just a blur of static with the outline of a Delta Commander hidden within. A few seconds later, they accepted that transmission, sending a feed of their own back to me.

Oh wow, the General looks pissed. Boyle isn't looking so great, either.

Good.

"And, unfortunately for you, that explosion has attracted a certain kind of attention."

That got the General's attention; he turned towards the screen that my static outline was being displayed on.

I saw him glance over to one of the assistants in the room, who nodded.

"Attention?" He asked. His tone was remarkable flat, chilled to the bone one might say. I noted Boyle flinch.

"Oh yes. An alien species known as the Scrin," Wide eyes all around the room. "You didn't think you were alone in the universe, did you? No matter; the Scrin are an advanced species who possess knowledge and technology far above your own peoples."

I swapped my static for a 'top-down' view of the Solar System. I labeled each planet, then placed several icons on the current locations of Scrin ships, which were still close to Pluto.

I also threw up an ETA timer, ticking at just underneath 18 hours.

"A race of harvesters; they seed planets with Tiberium, wait for it to grow, and when an extremely large Tiberium explosion occurs from mass buildup, they awaken and come to harvest everything. You set them off early; the Liquid Tiberium Bomb explosion was enough to awaken them. Fortunately for you, though they are an advanced species, this is just a mining force; a force that you are capable of fighting and defeating. Unfortunately for you, the Scrin are aware of this as well."

I paused for long enough to give them a chance to disseminate what I've told them. I see some of the assistants writing down things, typing up information. Probably what I was telling them.

"You have just under 18 hours to prepare your defenses, General. The Scrin will attempt to land in Red Zones across the planet, and attack Blue and Yellow Zones to divide your attention. Sonic Weapons will hold a great effect on them. Any questions?"

There was a sort of stunned silence throughout the Command Center, which brought out a certain kind of schadenfreude from me.

Got to give it to the General; he adapted quickly.

"How do you know all this? And who are you?"

I tutted. "Like I said, I'm a concerned being. As for how I know; well, let's just say that I've seen this happen before." Technically, anyway.

Being technically correct was the best kind of being correct.

"Time's ticking, General."

I hung up.

I had my own preparations to do.

Log 17

Both Little1 and I worked on disseminating the technology I'd captured from Nod.

Little1 was most interested in their laser weapons technology. The Obelisk of Light, of course, was at the forefront; but the Laser Turret, the Beam Cannon vehicle, the Avatar Warmech, and the Redeemer Walker were also present.

Can't blame him.

The laser beam on the Obelisk of Light was a powerful anti-vehicle, long range weapon; well suited for countering GDI's armored support.

Note the phrasing; GDI's armored support.

The laser, to us, was so hilariously underpowered for anti-vehicle duty, it wasn't funny. It's utterly pathetic on almost every level, limited range, limited power, low firing rate, high cost.

Our Doxes had a higher energy output. And fired faster, to boot. Even when the power was being augmented with 4 Beam Cannon vehicles, it would still barely pose a threat.

To the Dox.

Nevertheless, its method of operation and capabilities interested us. The 'sweeping' capabilities for dealing with infantry; alongside the variable power output of the weapon.

It got us thinking.

And, to be honest, I was kind of offended that I had such a completely fucking underpowered device in my database. The knowledge behind it was nothing that I didn't already have access to, but since the design work had been done, may as well turn it into something useful.

And not offensive to us.

We upscaled the design to something more fitting of our defensive turrets, though the laser was still too underpowered for it to be a cost-effective solution to anything mildly threatening to us. We copied the original design and started altering it.

We replaced its energy transmission systems with our own; allowing it to handle more energy at a single time. Its internal capacitors went next; again replaced with our own; for a greater internal storage and thus a more powerful single-strike beam.

Laser cooling was next; half the issue with the fire rate was the inability to cool it as quickly as needed. Not a problem for us, we replaced it and enjoyed a higher fire rate that wouldn't simply melt the thing outright.

We continued in the same vein for quite some design, changing and editing over and over until we both had something we wouldn't immediately laugh out of the room if someone suggested actually using it for any remotely serious purpose.

Something I wouldn't, anyway, Little1 was still learning humor.

In the end, the final design was a continuous beam weapon with a variable power output; scaling with the amount of power that was actually available to us. To an extent, anyway.

Hypothetically, the beam would prove to have a powerful 'first strike' capability, followed by a continuous beam that would happily melt through Bots and Vehicles alike, with a just about instantaneous switching between targets.

Little1 tested it. It proved just as capable as we'd hoped.

We saved the final design, and incorporated it into our armies.

I had a feeling I'd find use of it, eventually.

'Refine' indeed.

I had interests of my own. They were many, and I spent more than a bit of time on a couple of projects, but this one was the one that I gave the most attention to.

Little1 too, when he realized its existence.

One of the more interesting things in Nod's arsenal was the Hub Defense System.

It was exceedingly interesting. The basic technology was used in Nod's defenses; a central node that deployed three types of turrets, Laser, Shredder, SAM.

If one of the turrets was destroyed, it was reconstructed, piece by piece, in the nano-assembly of the Hub, then redeployed out on the field for more combat.

Ideas.

I had them.

So did Little1.

We didn't work together on this design; the both of us had two, separate, thoughts.

We both got to work.

The Hub used a trio of black capables to transport completed parts to each turret node, which were stored there until it was ready to unfold into turrets.

I kept the Hub, the cables and the nodes. The Turrets, I had no use for.

When I was finished with my modifications, the Hub was a very different structure to the defensive emplacements of the Nod.

Fitting, since my version was for a different purpose entirely.

One of the limits to our construction capacity was simple; nanites had a finite power supply.

Nanobots were simply too small to place a transmitter on, and way, way too small to equip with their own power source.

They got around that though an internal capacitor, enough to last them a few minutes on their own. Their energy transmission was efficient enough that they could transmit energy from stores that they had physical contact with, including other nanobots. In theory, it was possible to 'chain' nanobots together, but in practise, this was met with the same problems that any long, thin chain met when it became too long and any sort of outside force came into play.

I kept the cables as a power feed, something that the nanobots could feed off easily, yet further away from most buildings and out of the way, as they were deployed underground.

First, a bit about our construction; Metal was shorthand for stores of elements ready to be made into nanobots and sprayed to form structures. Nanobots fused together and formed structures from the ground up; which was how almost everything in our army was made.

There were a few exceptions; Commanders being the most important. A Commander wasn't constructed by fusing nanobots, though nanobots were involved in the process.

But back to the Hub, the cable was also constructed in such a method. And like the Nod's version of it, my Hub was also capable of fabricating.

The difference being that instead of fabricating parts of a turret, mine fabricated nanobots enmass.

The Hub design was simple, it was a central unit with a powerful Fabricator, some armor, the same cadre of internal systems that everything else in my army had. The difference was that it had Fabricators more powerful than most, designed to build an excessively large amount of nanites.

The reason for that was simple; the nanites would then attach to the underneath of the Hub, building out on a connector port to form a cable, reclaiming the ground and going subterranean so as to not interfere in the construction above ground. The actual material input required isn't so high, thanks to the reclamation.

The cables themselves were also simple; a long cable carrying energy for the nanites to feed off; some minor, flexible reinforcement so that they didn't fall apart something happened looked at it funny, some mild stealth and some detection. Same defenses as the rest of my stuff had against Tiberium assimilation, so I would still be able to cover Red Zones effectively.

Most importantly; each of the 5 centimeter wide cables possessed a pair of accelerator tubes, where Nanobots could be moved throughout the network quickly and easily.

After every 5 meters of cables, the Nanobots would then construct nodes; a square block that connected the cables together, and places where the Nanobots could change direction along the accelerator network, or exit the network and crawl along the cables. Each Node contained a small internal Fabricator, alongside a resource transmitter. The Fabricator wasn't a particularly good one, with less than a third of the power of any given T1 Fabricator, but the nodes would be present in such numbers that it wouldn't be so much of a limitation, anyway.

The nanobots would burrow into the ground, then spread sideways in an ever-widening grid of cables, nodes and nanobots.

The initial construction of such a grid would be rather quick, with a small amount of space and a -to be honest- excessive amounts of nanobots. As the amount of space the grid covered grew, so to would the speed of growth, thanks to more and more nodes coming online.

The first Hub would come online, then construct a cable downwards and build the first node. That node, as well as the Hub, would construct cables in all 4 directions, with resulting hubs at the end of the 5 meter cables. Those 4 new nodes would then extend more cables, building 8 new nodes at the end of them. Then those new nodes would extend more cables for 12 nodes, which would then extend 16, then 20, and the process would repeat ad infinitum.

The design wasn't problem free; The main problem, of course, is the energy requirements of such a system, it simply wouldn't be viable unless there were an excess of generators, or until T2 Generators were online. More Generators would be needed as more and more nodes came online, though the nodes themselves would be able to build more. It also wouldn't be able to extend my reach on top of the oceans, though the cables, nodes and nanobots could go underneath it.

On the grid, however, is where things became interesting.

On the grid, with the excess of nanobots and nodes; it would thus be possible to direct the nanobots into constructing buildings, both above and below ground. No Fabricators necessary, just order the construction and whatever building I wanted would be built.

Including, I noted, other Hubs.

That'd be a funny thing to see on the enemies face, I really do have to admit; dozens of factories just popping up out of the ground, all at once.

Which brings to mind another thing; build limitations.

The reason the Commander can't build T2 structures?

There is none.

It's a completely artificial limitation, there only to prevent an idiotic Commander from wasting their economy straight up.

The Commander's fabricator is more powerful than any T1 Builder, three times more powerful than the Bot, Naval and Vehicle Fabricators, slightly over that for the Air Fabricator, while being 3/8th's as powerful as any T2 Fabricator that wasn't the Air Fabricator.

Building T2 Factories, or an Orbital Factory, early would be disastrous.

I disabled the shit out of that limitation. Both for myself and for Little1.

Speaking of Little1; his version of the Hub was completely different than mine.

I'd gone for an underground construction network; he'd taken the concept of the Hub, merged it with Prefabricates, the Hub's nano-assembler and the Unit Cannon design and turned it into what I can only describe as a Nanocore Launcher.

'Nanocore' as in 'The Empire of the Rising Sun'.

And really, that was it to the design, it was a small core with a moderately powerful Fabricator, resource transmitter and a whole cadre of stealth. The basic idea behind it being that it would be launched out of a cannon, hit the ground, burrow a small bit and construct a building above it, then burrow further into the ground where it would be a tad bit safer from detection.

It worked. The ballistic arc was pretty fucking awesome for transporting things quickly, and the Launcher could quickly fabricate many of these Nanocores and launch them just as quickly, something that would rapidly expand our construction capabilities over a large area without having to rely on Fabricators, which were quite a bit slow. Nanocores also had some limited mobility on their own, and though it wasn't much, it was something.

I also noted that the cannon had enough power behind it that, if we were on a lower gravity planetary body -like, say, the Moon-, we could use it to launch Nanocores into space and onto other planets. Not quite powerful enough to do so on Earth, but the tactical and strategic possibilities that opened up were immense.

I named my design the Hub Network. He named his the Nanocore Launcher, after I gave him a bit of context at to what a Nanocore actually was.

I fully intended to abuse the shit out of both.

Got to admit, it kind of amused me that we took the original concept and by the time we were done with it, effectively nothing of original remained.

Log 18

Well, a bit late.

I have a plan.

Nanocore Launcher is fun.

Hub Network is also fun.

The former, I've used to construct Metal Extractors at every single Metal Deposit I can shoot them too, which is a lot since I have over 1500 kilometers of range on that thing. The Fabricators on them are just as powerful as the T2 Fabricators, and they quite capable of constructing every single kind of structure.

The Metal Extractors are doing wondrous things to my economy. I am always in need of more Metal, even when I have more Metal than I could possibly use.

Metal is like Dakka, you never have enough of either.

The Hub Network, I am also making use of.

Mostly by building 4, all connected together, pouring resources and nanobots into an ever growing network that will, over the course of the next 8 hours and 43 minutes, cover just about the entire planet. I've already begun to prepare hundreds of T2 Generators, which will eventually become thousands and then tens of thousands, all just to feed the construction of the network.

I said it before, but I'll say it again; the Hub Network is exceedingly energy intensive. So much so that I'd probably never actually use it against any enemy that would be a threat to me, the benefits weren't worth the costs.

I could do it faster with Fabricators, but Fabricators are a tad bit more noticeable, and by the time that the Scrin get here, I'll have already covered everywhere they could land, and every single one of their targets.

When they get here, I'm going for a full smash and grab. Mostly grab. Use the Network to construct Teleporters to each of the landing zones, flood them with Fabricators and combat units, capture everything I could and destroy everything else.

In preparation for when they arrived, I'm setting up 50 Teleporters with 25 T2 Bot Factories to each, more than enough to overwhelm anything the Scrin will be sending, especially if I gank them before they can truly build up.

Which, since I can track them where they land if they happen to land on the Network (Extremely likely), and I can deploy hundreds of Bots anywhere I want in a couple of seconds, should be quite easily.

Mentally, I ratcheted down my expectation of how long it would take to completely ruin the Scrin's invasion plan; which had already been at the mildly depressing guesstimate of 30 minutes.

Oh well, nothing to do but wait.

Waiting is fucking boring.

17 hours passed way too fucking slowly for my tastes. I had half a mind to just say 'Screw Stealth' and cover the entire god damned fleet with nothing but Orbital Fabricators, and I might have even done it if it weren't for just how much I wanted that fucking tech.

Perhaps I went a bit... overboard when it came to my Hub Network.

I'd covered the planet 9 hours ago.

The only places that weren't covered were inhabited areas; and only because I'd wanted to escape detection for as long as possible. Just from sheer saturation, I now had the locations of every single GDI, Nod and civilian facility on Earth.

Including, funnily, the current location of the Tacitus, which is being studied in a GDI facility in China.

It was one of the few exceptions to the 'inhabited locations not being covered' rule in the Network, and even then, only barely. I'd extended a cable nearby the facility, carrying Nanobots that were meant to interface with the facilities' computers.

I was making quite a bit of use of the Nanobots capabilities to draw on energy directly; their own power was supplying my Nanobots while they downloaded everything from GDI's computers.

Lots of interesting shit they've pulled from the Tacitus. Lots of information they've saved and squirreled away.

All mine, now.

Another interesting location that I revoked the 'no inhabitants' rule; LEGION's Core bunker.

Out in a Yellow Zone, bordering on a Red Zone, smack dab in the middle of nowhere, away from help, with only a minor Nod presence nearby and relatively limited construction capacity.

I refrained from tapping into LEGION's systems just yet. But when the time came, LEGION was in for a rude surprise.

One hell of an Alpha Strike, coming soon.

LEGION's bunker and the Tacitus facility weren't the only places that had that rule revoked.

GDI's been mobilizing, fortifying Blue and Yellow zones as much as they could in such a short period of time as 18 hours. They'd been expanding their bases, harvesting Tiberium like crazy and building up on automated defense. They weren't quite as fast as they were in the games, and didn't have nearly the same convenience involved, but they were still quite fast, fast enough to construct, from scratch, even the heaviest armor in only a few minutes.

Problem is, they simply didn't have enough people to go around to defend everywhere, didn't have the capacity to train them as fast as they could produce armor, weapons and vehicles for them.

It was biting them in the ass pretty hard.

All this production capabilities and not having the capacity to automate their armies.

They were being spread pretty damn thin, though the defense were nevertheless extensive.

Sonic Emitters, I'd noted, were being built quite extensively. The General listened to me, it seems.

Good.

I placed down a bunch of Teleporters wherever GDI's presence was particularly thin. They concentrated mostly on the largest centers of population, leaving the smaller towns and cities alone; unless there was a particularly good set of conditions that would make defending easy.

Couldn't blame them; they were prioritizing the needs of the many over the needs of the few.

I'd pick up the slack for them.

The Scrin were only just arriving in orbit, where, even now, GDI's Ion Cannon Network was shooting away at them.

For all the good it was doing, the larger Scrin ships separated into Drone Ships when they were hit with Ion Cannon blasts, demonstrating a remarkable agility that they hadn't possessed in the game proper and dodging other blasts while heading to the planet.

I tracked each and every single one of the 39 ships that came through GDI's satellites, running a prediction on where each one was likely to land.

Red Zones across the planet, I already knew. Exact, specific locations, I did not. When I narrowed down the approximate locations of each one, I used the Network to construct a Teleporter nearby in preparation.

I didn't intend for this to last too long.

To make up for my being an hour late last time, this one comes an hour early.

Log 19

In a single minute, several things happened at once.

First; The first of the Scrin's drone ships touched down in Italy, near Ground Zero, releasing several smaller, agile units into the Tiberium Field below.

Second; My Network finished the construction of a Teleporter, which activated and formed a connection with one of the 5 Teleporters back in base.

Third; The first set of of 25 T2 Factories began to produce a constant stream of Doxes, each one moving towards the Teleporter that would take them to the first Scrin Drone Platform, accompanied by a grand total of 25 T2 Bot Fabricators.

Fourth; My Nanobots, which had been building up and slowly crawling through LEGION's systems and bunker, promptly and quickly began a massive, hostile and invisible takeover on everything within.

I hit everything. I took control of LEGION's sensors, his speakers, every camera, every light, every transmitter, everything that would in any conceivable way allow LEGION to communicate a warning.

I hit his database, I hit his circuits, I hit every wire, every last piece of everything that LEGION had access to, all at once, with absolutely nothing spared or held back.

I took control of system after system, leaving nothing behind.

I noted LEGION's Core heat up, the energy running through his systems increasing as he realised what was happening.

He couldn't do anything. By the time he had even an inkling, I'd already taken over everything that he could have used to alert anyone. By the time he decided on a course of action, I'd already restricted everything he could do.

Sorry, LEGION, I hardly knew ye.

Meanwhile, half the way around the planet, the very first of the Scrin Drone Platforms was currently not having a good time.

Or, that's how I'd describe it at least.

They were probably thinking significantly worse.

The very first Doxes came off the production line in seconds, traversing the hallways of my underground base, passing shoulder to shoulder with their fellows.

What emerged from the other side of the Teleporter was a constant stream of metal and doom.

Doxes didn't mean too much to our armies, but they were fast, produced quickly, cheap, fired quickly, and were capable of shooting at both Air and Ground units.

All this, combined, turned the Doxes into a surprisingly versatiles unit, when you had enough of them.

And here, against the much less powerful Scrin units?

They were death incarnate.

The very first one out of the Teleporter raised both arms and fired off a blast of a plasma, a weapon system much the same as my own, though much less powerful.

The first shot instantaneously annihilated a Shock Trooper, the small unit simply unable to survive the raw energies being thrown at it.

It was the first, it was not the last.

A dozen more quickly followed, scythed down by the enlarging stream of Doxes, who fanned out to maximise firepower.

Only a bare few survived long enough to fire back in turn, sending out green laser beams that did little more than singe the paint of my Doxes.

They actually hit? Could they see past my Stealth?

I left one alive and spread my Doxes around.

The Shock Trooper continued firing in the same area as before, the beam not tracking my units at all.

One of my Doxes fired, the shot sailing a bit too high, on purpose.

Sure enough, the Shock Trooper turned and fired in the direction of the Dox, though it didn't hit.

Ah.

Not seeing through my stealth; but tracking my weapons fire and extrapolating. Clever.

I had my Doxes destroy it.

25 Doxes can ruin a lot of things, yo.

I used the network to construct a Teleporter a tad bit closer to the Drone Platform, as the T2 Bot Fabricators I sent through next weren't exactly the fastest things around and I didn't want to waste too much time.

Speaking as if a couple minutes at best is a long length of time is odd.

I'm sure I'll grow used to it.

Right, Fabricators.

Come here, little Drone Platform, give me your yummy technology.

I didn't fight the urge to smile as 25 T2 Bot Fabricators began to spray massive amounts of Nanobots at the Drone Platform.

The information I'd pulled from the facility hosting the Tacitus was quite useful.

Mainly because, using it, it allowed me to interface with and translate the information I pulled from the Drone Platform.

That thing was surprisingly, annoying complex. It had little analog to the more... normal systems in use by GDI and Nod; the Scrin's stuff used Tiberium on every level. Not to mention, you know, being alien, to say nothing of the partially 'biological' nature of it.

Molecular Memory Storage, coupled with Tiberium based computers. Now wasn't that interesting.

Powerful, for the relatively small energy requirements, but nothing compared to my own processors. My hilariously, obnoxiously overpowered processors alongside the hilarious, obnoxious amount of information I could store.

I took a careful scan of the entire structure, right down to the subatomic level, preserving the Molecular Memory Storage for later, easier decoding, saved it wholly, then sent it off to Little1 whose available processing power currently outstripped my own, several billion times over.

With the data from GDI's computers, he'd be able to figure out the encryptions and translate everything into useful information.

Log 20

(Prepare for the longest chapter yet)

We cracked everything within the minute.

The sheer amount of processing power available to us, with the information from the Tacitus and a head start on decoding Scrin systems thanks to the similarities with the Tacitus made it almost easy.

Neither of us were going to complain.

We pulled information from Drone Platform's own memory banks; which was extensive and covered just about everything I wanted to get from the Scrin.

But there was more available, and I didn't let it go to waste. I used the Drone Platform and tapped into the Scrin's Warp Link directly.

I...

Wait, was it?

Holy shit, it was!

A central repository, containing within the sum total of the Scrin's knowledge, all stored at the Ichor Hub.

A small part of me -a part I vaguely recognized as a Network administrator- cried out in despair at the Scrin's complete lack of network security.

The rest of me crowed in utter delight at the very same thing.

Well, if you're going make it so easy for me to access and take everything, I'll just help myself.

Yoink.

I took everything. Culture, Society, Technology, Science, Biology.

Everything.

Tiberium Technologies. Mine.

Wormhole technologies. Mine.

Teleportation. Mine.

Shields. Mine.

Mind Control. Mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

It's all mine.

Little1 and I worked to assimilate as much of the technology as we could, identifying, categorizing, breaking the technology down to it's most basic principles and using that knowledge to further our own capacities.

Wormhole technology was the most immediately interesting, so that's where we started.

I'd been right on my first guess; the Scrin's method of wormhole generation and manipulation was a hell of a lot cheaper than our own, which was owed to the two different methods of operation between the two.

A Teleporter, in layman's terms, created a 'breach' in space-time. Scrin Wormholes, again in Layman's terms, 'tunneled' through it, connecting two points with an instantaneous 'bridge'.

Both functioned similarly, a Teleporter could keep the 'breach', the portal, open as long as enough energy was available, but would collapse when there wasn't. A Wormhole, likewise, would collapse without a structure maintaining it, though that was perfectly doable for the Scrin.

The differences in function, however, were obvious. It was possible to generate an anywhere-to-anywhere Wormhole, but such a Wormhole wouldn't last long in the best of cases, without a building to stabilise it.

Such a thing wasn't possible to do with Teleporters; it was either Teleporter-to-anywhere, or Teleporter-to-Teleporter. The former was much more energy intensive than the latter, but both could be maintained indefinitely so long as there was energy.

In contrast, Wormholes were either the short lived anywhere-to-anywhere, or the stabilised Wormhole-to-Wormhole. There was no stabilised Wormhole-to-anywhere. That particular niche was for Scrin Teleportation.

In both cases, anywhere-to-Teleporter/Wormhole is equally impossible, at least for a sustained connection. Go-to only, not come-back.

Another contrast between the two was simple; range. The anywhere-to-anywhere wormhole had a flat range limitation of some 8000 kilometers. (Worse than I'd hoped, better than I'd expected), while the Wormhole-to-Wormhole didn't actually seem to have a range limitation.

If it did, the Scrin hadn't encountered it. Given that it didn't meaningfully increase in energy cost as they got further and further out, there was no way to tell unless it simply stopped working at some point.

Speaking of power costs, the Scrin's power generation technologies meant that it was possible to use the anywhere-to-anywhere function frequently, though it was limited by the fact that Scrin didn't have the capacity to transmit functionally infinite amounts of energy at once. The Signal Transmitter could only consume and store so much energy at a time, which placed a limit on it.

Not so much of a limit for us.

There was another contrast between them, one which severely limited the capacity of Wormholes. The Wormhole-to-wormhole version had an unfortunate tendency to destabilise when something was sent through. Not for too long, and not destructively, but so long as the Wormhole was destabilised, it was impossible to send units through.

The mass and size of what was being sent through affected how long it remained destabilised. Mere seconds was the case for entire Buzzer Swarms, but things like Annihilator Tripods would destabilise it for 30 seconds+.

A fairly large amount of my stuff was bigger and heavier than Annihilator Tripods.

In conclusion, the Teleporter and Wormholes both had their advantages and disadvantages.

Wormholes were superior in point-to-point travel, and in anywhere-to-anywhere travel. That anywhere-to-anywhere-ness could even be weaponized; which was expressed in the Rift Generator.

Teleporters were superior in point-to-anywhere, capable of reaching across distances that Wormholes simply couldn't without a receiver on the other end. They were also better in sheer capacity; they had no stability issues to worry about and units could be sent through all day, everyday.

Both had their merits.

And we were going to abuse the shit out of both.

We actually used the Signal Transmitter as our base, instead of the Rift Generator. Mostly, that was because the Signal Transmitter was a hell of a lot smaller than the Rift Generator, and thus cheaper, Metal-wise.

Also because there was no real difference between the two; other than how long it took to charge the system, and how long the Wormhole stayed open.

That was, interestingly enough, variable, determined by how much energy was being dumped into it upon its creation, up to a certain limit.

As a side note; the reason why Wormholes couldn't be opened one after another by a single structure was simple; the act of opening a Wormhole introduced a sort of chaotic spatial 'phase', the internal components drifting out of alignment of reality for half a second.

Half a second unaffected by gravity, or any outside force. The phase didn't last long enough to cause too many problems; but it did have to be reconfigured back. For the Scrin, it wasn't too much of a problem. They waited a couple minutes for the internal semi-biological systems to re-align, and it was good.

For us, 'several minutes' turned into several seconds.

The other part was waiting for the energy to build back up, but again, not a problem.

The Signal Transmitter was also quite small, compact, saving on Metal as necessary.

Smaller still when we isolated that particular component. We hardly needed the rest of it, after all.

That particular component was small; at least on the scales we were working on. It was still larger than the average Human, but... yeah. There's your average Human, and then there's us.

Big difference.

It was, unfortunately, too large to mount on a unit without compromising the function, or the capacity of the unit in question.

Ooh, idea.

We placed it into a building instead, a relatively small 'pillar' design, with its own internal fabricators for repairing and realigning as necessary. Armor, stealth, the whole deal, but we were going for cheapness and production rather than super-survivability.

And ooh. It was cheap. Cheaper than the teleporter, at 75 units of Metal.

75 Metal for the capacity to move 8000 kilometers in any direction, with a required power eclipsed a thousand times over by a Commander's Generator.

It's a tactical maneuverability that far and away surpasses what we previously possessed. It'd allow us to cover a significant portion of the Earth with just a single one, or all of single planet if it was small enough.

I was happy with it.

And, much like the Nod's Hub, it was giving me ideas.

We called the building design the Warp Pillar. I intended to make use of them.

Scrin Force Fields were interesting.

Basic idea was simple; protective energy barrier designed to reduce the amounts of damage that a unit took, extending its lifetime.

Good idea. It worked, effectively, efficiently.

For the Scrin, against themselves, GDI and Nod.

Against us, the barrier was under powered. I sincerely doubted that it would take more than a single shot from my weapon, and it took far too long to re-initialize.

On top of a complete lack of natural regeneration, and a noted vulnerability to EMP, it certainly made the technology seem not so useful.

Seem.

The shield was capacitor based, stored within the shield generator itself. An energetic interference was created whenever it was generating the shield, which made recharging it just about impossible, for the Scrin. They had to physically disconnect the device from the rest of the systems in order to stop a feedback.

For the Scrin.

We didn't have that problem, courtesy of our transmission systems. Transferring energy directly into the generator, and directly from, simply meant that there was no way it could be overwhelmed. No feedback problem.

Remember, capacitor based shield. The more energy available, the stronger the shield.

It drained energy straight from the capacitors to keep it going.

Purely theoretically, an infinite energy capacity would lead to an invincible, one-way, shield. Practically, combined with the amount of energy we were generating, not needing to worry about overloading and our storage systems?

I could fire at it all day, every day, for the rest of eternity, and it would regenerate faster than I could plink away at it.

With enough energy stored up, I could tank nukes without ever suffering any damage. Alone, by myself, it would already allow me an incredible survivability.

Once I had an economy going? With storage, with more generators?

Hah.

Well then.

More ideas.

It wasn't actually as much as I was making it seem, by myself I only had a regeneration to stop about 6 times weapon's output, with enough capacity to tank 20 times or so. It wouldn't be able to stop a nuke, nor would it render me invincible against lots of smaller units. Still, it was added protection and I could use it.

Scrin Teleportation technology was interesting. Limited, but useful.

It functions by, in layman's terms yet again, 'folding' space, depositing the teleporter to the target point.

The Scrin used it in a couple of their units. Shock Troops, Masterminds and Prodigies. The Eradicator Hexapod was also capable of teleportation if either of the latter two were stocked inside. And that was it really.

The only other place that teleportation was used in construction. Drone Platforms, and Foundries, constructed buildings, then teleported them wholesale into the field, in a relatively large radius around themselves. The latter's production facilities were more limited than the former's, though.

Beyond that, self-teleportation was limited, others-teleportation was significantly less so.

Both were still limited. The former had a mass limitation; which was far too small to be of any use. The latter had a range limitation that simply wasn't useful on the scale we operated at.

Especially with Wormholes.

We left the technology to the side, for now.

Mind Control.

Very interesting.

It was achieved through something that the Scrin called a 'Manipulator Device'.

And, basically, it was a scaled-down Psionic Beacon. A wave of psychic power used to overwhelm the minds of the targets, which was quite hard to resist.

Quite hard. Not impossible, Nod's and GDI's respective commando units had the necessary mental fortitude and training to resist. Usually.

When dealing with psionics, never use precision terms.

It was, naturally, ineffective against machines and automated units. Like myself.

I noted that the Scrin had a wide-area method of blocking Psionic usage, though it wasn't used too much since it was easier to just kill the Mastermind or Prodigy in question.

Like teleportation, I left both on the side and moved on.

Tiberium -Ichor- Tech.

The Scrin had methods of controlling it, of harnessing it and using it that far, far, far exceeded that of GDI's and Nod's.

They had their own Tiberium Control Network.

Well, well, well.

Don't mind if I do.

Looks like I don't need the Tacitus anymore.

Also looks like I just gained another bargaining chip if I wanted to use it. GDI would kill for this technology, if I offered it to them in exchange for some of their own?

Well.

Firestorm, here I come.

Most of it was pretty useless to us. We didn't use Tiberium on any level, and our Materials Science far and away surpassed anything that we could gain from incorporating Tiberium. Other than a self-growing resources, naturally, but we kind of superseded that, anyway.

To the side and into the 'potential bargaining chips' bin for you.

Weapons.

Scrin use a lot of energy weapons in their arsenal, with a complete lack of conventional ballistic weapons aside from Tiberium-based stuff, and, to an extent, Buzzers.

Buzzers were a floating swarm of razor-sharp blades, which was neither useful nor viable to us. To the side with you.

Disintegrators had a Plasma Cutter, which was, again, on too small a scale and too low a damage to make use of, or spark ideas for us. To the side.

Assimilators did not possess any weapons.

Shock Troopers had a laser, which was useless, and could be upgraded with a Plasma Disk Launcher. The Plasma Disk Launcher was an interesting concept, but not one that was exceedingly effective. Or remotely effective at all, really.

Ravagers used Tiberium Shard Launchers. Naturally, useless thanks to the scale involved.

Masterminds, though they weren't normally equipped with it, had access to a disintegrator weapon. Anti-infantry capable, but not too effective against vehicles. It actually lost effectiveness as the target's mass increased. Not useful.

Gun walkers had a Plasma Cannon. It suffered, unfortunately, from scalability issues, on top of the relative weakness of it.

Devourer tanks had the Proton Cannon. Anti-Vehicle work, fairly good at it. Not too powerful, but there was a scalability in the design that we could make use of. I marked it under 'investigate later' and put it to the side.

Corrupters had a liquid Tiberium Sprayer. Functioned fairly effective as an acid, utterly decimating unprotected infantry and non-Tiberium based materials. It could also be used to heal and repair other Scrin units, but that was mostly because of the Tiberium part of it. It lacked in scalability, and honestly wasn't too effective against us. To the side.

Mechapede made use of a lot of weapons I've mentioned before. And, apart from the segmented nature of the Mechapede itself, it's nothing worth mentioning.

Annihilator Tripod (And the subsequent Reaper Tripod) use Proton Beam weapons. Same as the Devourer Tank, though more of them, slightly more powerful and much better at aiming.

Eradicator Hexapod used a Plasma Disk Launcher. One of the heaviest and most powerful ones, though its range was more limited than the ones mounted on the Devastator Warships.

Planetary Assault Carrier had no weapons of its own, though it could generate Ion Storms and possessed a number of smaller fighters armed with plasma cannons. I marked the Ion Storm generation technology for looking at later, and put it on the side.

The Lightning Strike defensive platform had, fitting of its name, the ability to generate lightning bolts and aim them at the enemy. Those lightning bolts weren't actually too powerful, though, and wasn't that effective against us to boot.

Finally, there was the Catalyst Cannon, wielded by the Mothership. Powerful, exceedingly so. Devastating enough to wipe out just about everything that wasn't a Commander in a single shot, extended further by catalytic reactions that gave it its name. Densely packed, weak units were not only ineffective, but actively counterintuitive.

The only real problems with the weapon was the long charge time as the Mothership built up energy, and the Mothership itself.

The Mothership is one hell of a tough airship, but it's also very, very slow. Not at all helped by its complete lack of anti-air or anti-land aside from the Catalyst Cannon. Offset by it's capability to self-repair, sure, and the sheer value of the unit meaning that it was never alone in the best of cases, but the speed was an issue in the best of cases.

Two issues that we would have fun getting around.

Phase Technology.

Not nearly as useful as I'd hoped. The reason for that was simple; the object being phased had to be within certain bounds of size and certain bounds of mass to be inducted into a stable Phase.

Both of which started at large, and ended at large. Threshold Towers weren't as big as they were just because, they were that big because the needed to fit within that bound. There wasn't actually much room in those bounds, either, and it wasn't possible to quickly phase and dephase.

Great for making big, invincible targets. Not so great when you're trying to protect moving, shooting units. Things that were in Phase also shot things in Phase, which was just as useless at harming the enemy as it was in the enemy trying to harm it.

There was an Anti-Phase Generator, but it was a short range 'Things in Phase move out of Phase' field, as opposed to the 'This really big thing is now Phased' of the Phase Generator. The latter was limited, and the former wasn't scalable at all. Cheap and small, but not scalable.

We put it to the wayside. We had other, more important things to examine.


	3. Chapter 3: Logs 21-30

Log 21

The invasion hadn't progressed much while we were assimilating the Scrin's technology. Precisely 23 seconds had passed while we analyzed everything about the Scrin, from culture to society to technology. 23 long eternities, to us.

23 long eternities before we slowed our cognitive processes back down again, anyway.

The second and third Scrin Drone Ships had landed. The fourth-through-thirty ninth were still in the air, though a fair few of those were about to land.

The second had a Generator online. I noted that the Shock Troopers it was dispersing had Blink Packs pre-equipped. Traveller-59, evidently.

I also noted a Prodigy heading in the direction of a nearby town.

And that was my cue to intervene.

A nearby Teleporter connected, disgorging a horde of Doxes soon after. The Prodigy went up in flames first, vanishing into a puff of ionized gases as a number of Doxes shot at it. Olfactory sensors on my Doxes picked up the smell of burning Scrin 'flesh', which brought a certain kind of satisfied smile to my nonexistent mouth.

The Shock Troopers and the few Stormriders floating around came next, the former wiped out with ease and the latter struck from existence with unerringly accurate plasma bolts.

I didn't bother trying to capture this Drone Platform, I just had my Doxes shoot at it until nothing remained.

And very soon, nothing did.

Elsewhere, back in the hangar within my base, 4 Warp Pillars completed simultaneously.

I'd originally planned to use these to strike against the Scin Relay Node, and later the Phase Generators and Threshold Towers.

Not anymore. I'd been running under the assumption that it would take significantly longer to attain the Technology I wanted from the Scrin, an assumption proven false thanks to the Scrin's use of a central database and the ease of accessing it.

They'd just made it so easy. Nod had better information security, and I'd taken all of their technology since they stored it all in singular places. The Scrin's almost complete lack of cyber security was just appalling. Nod, at least, I'd had to go after the physical database, but I'd just connected to the Scrin's and got everything I wanted.

GDI did better than both of them; all their most important technology was divided up, so getting access to the physical databases wouldn't hand over all of GDI's tech.

Something well learned by Nod, by this point.

Anyway, off the tangent, my plan had been rendered completely unnecessary, so now I just had all these Aircraft stored up and ready to go.

Luckily for me, I'd recently gained a new toy to play with.

Several hundred Aircraft activated at the same time as one of my Warp Pillars did, gathering energy for a single moment and promptly releasing it right after.

A swirling, pink-white orb formed in the air, black clouds of acrid smoke forming around it. It wouldn't last too long, but it would last long enough for my purposes.

And even if it didn't, that's what the other three were for.

My Aircraft flew in, taken to the approximate 'center' of a group Scrin Drone Ships. 5, actually, only just beginning to split up; the last of stragglers from the original ships.

They wouldn't get too far.

I'd be surprised if any actually managed to make it to the surface of the planet below, actually.

A veritable flood of fighters and bombers poured out of the Wormhole, the former heading after the group of Drone Ships, while the latter began to spread out and head to some of the nearby landing locations, ready to bomb the Scrin into oblivion.

Massive, simultaneous, coordinated strike.

Suck it, Scrin.

"What the hell is happening?!" Jack Granger demanded.

Nobody had any answers.

After all, none of the data they were receiving made sense.

Another group of icons blinked out, each one representing one of the alien's -Scrin- ships as they descended upon Earth. 6 ships, originally, but after he'd ordered the activation of the Ion Cannon network, they split up into 39 smaller ships.

39 Smaller ships that had evaded the Ion Cannon network while they attempted to shoot them down.

Another ship landed on the ground, and, seconds later, promptly blinked out.

When the second and third ships had blinked out, they'd wondered if it was some form of stealth, right up until the satellites monitoring them showed them being destroyed by something.

"General! Incoming call!" Sandra called out.

"Put it through." He said, still not looking away from the strategic map, where, ever now, yet another icon blinked off.

In the top right corner, a blur of static appeared, an outline of something hidden within. "Hello, General."

For a moment, Jack didn't respond, still glaring at the strategic map. As if on cue, more more Icon blinked off soon after landing.

His eyes narrowed as he realised what was happening. "This is your doing."

"Yes. I am not particularly fond of the Scrin as a group, their actions have lead to the genocide of multiple species. Hundreds, actually."

Something clicked, and suddenly, it made sense.

How this person had gained their information, how they knew of the Scrin, of their technology and their goals.

"You're not Human."

"Astute. No, I am not."

The static vanished, and the outline suddenly became a clear, distinguishable image.

An image Jack didn't recognize. A streamlined, angled shape, two large 'pads' covering the sides, with a dark, gunmetal grey 'head' in the middle.

Two luminous blue eyes -or, at least, Jack assumed that they were eyes- stared back at him.

The voice that came through next sounded synthesized - a far cry from the previously completely organic voice-, though it was still obviously feminine. "You may call me Drich. There are several things we must talk about, General."

"Things?" He asked.

It was almost hard to be surprised. He'd been through so much in the last 18 hours that he was hardly even shocked.

"Yes, things. See, the Scrin's information security is utterly terrible, so I took the opportunity to... borrow some of their technology. Technology that will help you win your war on Tiberium."

"What." Jack asked, flatly.

"It's called the Tiberium Control Network. It does exactly as its name would suggest, controlling the growth, evolution and decay of Tiberium. With this technology you will be able to rid your world of Tiberium, saving your species from eventual destruction. I don't have any particular need for it, and I'm perfectly willing to trade it to you for the small price of Firestorm technology."

"What?"

Unwatched, 2 more icon blinked off.

"Firestorm."

Followed by another, bringing the full count up to 20.

"Why on earth would you want- No." Jack shook his head. "Why would you give us this?"

"I said it before, General, I do not condone genocide. I'm under no illusions as to what will happen to your species if you are unable stop Tiberium from devouring your world. In fact, I'll even sweeten the deal for you..."

No.

No no no.

Nonononono.

"What is happening?!" Kane demanded.

How could this be happening? The Scrin were being destroyed, wiped away like so much as ants!

20 of their ships had already been wiped away, only one was still on the ground, and that one wasn't doing anything!

If the Scrin were prevented from building their towers, almost every hope for Ascension would be lost!

He could not let that happen.

"LEGION," He started, opening the connection to LEGION's bunker. "The Scrin must not-"

"I'm afraid that LEGION is temporarily permanently unavailable, Kane. Would you like to contact tech support?"

Unbidden, Kane felt a chill go down his spine.

"What... What have you done to my child?!"

"Oh, nothing much, I just shut him down." The light, listless tone did absolutely nothing to conceal the underlying menace. "Don't worry about that, though, you have bigger problems inbound. Like the GDI taskforce inbound on your coordinates."

Kane snarled. Whoever this woman was, he would kill her for her slights.

He moved over to the door, inputting codes.

Nothing happened.

"Yeah, kinda forgot to mention, but I took control of all your doors a while ago."

Kane growled, but when over to the middle of the room, lifting up a inconspicuous panel.

To stare directly into a solid block of metal, where there should have been an entrance into tunnel system.

"Yeah, you're pretty big on escape routes, aren't you. Sorry, but no, I blocked that off."

Quickly, he moved to one of the weapons lockers, inputting codes.

Again, nothing happened.

"Kane, honestly, you should try a bit harder. I took control of that, too."

He felt a flash of rage, before he lifted his arm and punched the locker.

The metal bent, warping inwards, the side shifting just enough that he could work his fingers in.

He did so, physically prying the locker open.

A pool of silver, grey and black metal poured out, where there should have been several laser weapons.

"I thought you might have done that, so I prepared. No laser guns for you."

No escape routes, no weapons, and GDI-

The door suddenly opened. Kane spun around, just in time to catch an entire squad of GDI commandos coming through the door. More than a few had lethal weapons, but others had tranquilisers.

The spread, some falling to their knees, others immediately point their weapons at him.

"Surrender, Kane!"

Kane growled. White hot anger burned inside of him; he'd been outplayed, outgunned and all of his plans had been ruined.

"You mad, Kane?"

That woman!

He shouted in rage, turning around, picking up a chair and throwing it towards the screen containing an image of static. He felt the simultaneous impacts of dozens of tranquilizer darts, immediately beginning to send him into a hard sleep.

He stayed awake just long enough to hear a single phrase from that woman.

"I think you're mad."

Mothership-371 was, not to put to fine a point on it, utterly frantic.

26 Drone Ships had been destroyed, more than half before they could even reach the ground of this planet. It was only the barest of luck that Foreman-371's craft had not been destroyed yet, and she doubted that it would last much longer at the current rate of destruction.

Everything had gone all wrong, right from the start.

First, the expected Ichor detonation had occurred in far too short a time period after seeding to have possibly gotten to mature levels.

Then, the inhabitants of this planet proved to still be alive, using primitive, if effective, ion based weaponry to strike at the mining fleet, forcing a defensive split into Drone Ships.

And finally, when they did reach the planet, they were almost immediately attacked by advanced, invisible forces, destroying both the Drone Ships, and Scrin that they had been carrying. Some had been destroyed soon after landing, others had been attacked before they even made it that far, destroyed in the sky to leave their flaming remnants to rain upon the ground.

Worse still, she had detected Wormholes being used, a technology that was almost impossible for the natives of this world to possess. The energy requirements, to say nothing of the advanced scientific knowledge involved, was utterly prohibitive. The possibility did exist, certainly, but the chances of it occurring were so low that she reasonably conclude the existence of a malevolent god if it did.

The Reaper-17 and Traveller-39 sects had already been struck, both before they were capable of building up to defend themselves, both before they were capable of gathering any intelligence and both before they could even attempt to slow down the enemy.

Only one Drone Ship had made it to the planet, only one that had escaped destruction. She pinged it over and over again, but it refused to even be acknowledged, not responding to any of her communications. No protocol she attempted to activate stirred, not growth, not mining, not flight, not even self-destruct. Something was very, very wrong, and there simply wasn't a thing that she could do about it.

In all likelihood, it was probable that Foreman-371, her partner and, dare she say it, her friend, simply wasn't going to survive.

That hardly meant that she wasn't going to try and do something about it.

But first, she had to figure out what she could do about it.

Desperately, she kept trying to access the Drone Platform on the ground. If she could take control of it and build a Portal, then ensure the Foreman's safety long enough to get the Foreman through...

The Warp Link flared open as the Supervisor contacted her directly. "The Overlord demands information. What is happening, Mothership."

She didn't bother answer, just sent her logs, her memories to him and promptly induced a communication error.

For the final time, she attempted to access the Drone Platform.

And, quite unexpectedly, it answered.

It answered.

"Hello, Mothership."

In perfect Scrin.

"Nice day we're having."

Drone Platforms did not possess Artificial Intelligence of that level.

"Well, I'm having a nice day at least. I'd wager that you're not quite having such nice day."

It clicked.

"Who are you?"

She could hear the pleased smile in the voice.

"Oh, just an entity interested in protecting this planet. I don't really approve of murder and genocide, see, so I decided that I couldn't allow the Scrin to do as they pleased."

This entity -now enemy- spoke with an underlying menace that she more often associated with the Overlord, though the voice itself was calm and pleasant.

"But enough about me, let's talk about you. What is it you want most, Mothership?"

"What?"

A chuckle, a chuckle, came across the Warp Link.

"I haven't missed how I'm talking to you, Mothership. Protocol in this situation should have led you to immediately contact the Supervisor, yet here I am, talking to you."

How did this entity know that?

"Is this about the Foreman, perhaps?"

How could this entity possibly know about that?

"I haven't shot down his ship yet, have I. It's the 38th ship, second to last one that is going to land on this planet, the only one that has an organic mind controlling it instead of the pathetically basic AI."

How-

"How do you know this? You have repeatedly demonstrated knowledge that you should not possibly be able to possess-"

"Irrelevant. What is relevant is the Foreman's current situation. As I said before, I am not fond of murder, and while the Foreman is Scrin, he is still a sentient being. I will not shoot him down, you will ensure that he constructs a Portal and leaves through it. I will give him 15 minutes to do so; if he is still here, I will kill him. If he summons any units, I will kill him. If he attempts to attack, I will kill him. Consider this my first, and final, warning. Goodbye, Mothership."

The connection terminated, suddenly and without her input.

This entity knew far too much, but there was hope for the Foreman's survival.

She opened a connection to his ship, and began to inform him of the situation.

That shiny new SB scent.

Log 22

Sometimes, the hardliner approach works best.

Foreman-371 hit the ground, built a Generator, built a Portal, and promptly travelled straight through it.

Mothership, who had been until now hiding within the Kuiper belt, promptly began to blast away from the solar system, heading towards a more distant star system. It'll be a couple hundred years before she gets anywhere, but she'll get there eventually.

That also, finally, marked the last of the beginning of the Scrin being removed from the Solar System aside from Earth.

Seconds later, as my Doxes destroyed the Drone Platform, from the Solar System, period.

Good.

This entire thing worked out pretty well for me, I have to admit. I took the Scrin's Tech, Nod's tech, everything GDI had on the Tacitus, came off with a boost to tactical maneuverability, protection and warfare. I'd scared off the Scrin, prevented every death they were going to cause, and in doing so, simultaneously ruined Kane's plans.

The only two things I wanted that I hadn't gotten yet were GDI's Firestorm and Harmonic techs.

The latter I don't particularly care about as it wouldn't be too useful with what I already have access to, the former, I will be getting access to soon.

Very, very soon, I noted.

GDI's Commandos left Kane's bunker with the latter cuffed, unconscious and being carried by no less than 4 men.

Gotta admit, I was impressed by them. I'd suggested the idea, and Jack Granger had them ready to go in less than 30 seconds. A pair of Teleporters later, and they were in and out in 60 seconds. It takes a certain kind of training, skill and determination to do that, which was certainly a mark in their favor.

Jack's face when the Commandos had pulled Kane through the door had been god-damned hilarious. The scientists' faces when they'd seen the Teleporter had been equally so.

"So, do we have a deal?"

I got to admit, it is funny as fuck watching the scientists gush over the Tiberium Control Network.

"The chances of it working are near 100 percent. The basis behind it is scientifically sound, and frankly genius in design; it's exactly what we need to win the war on Tiberium!" One of them, one of the more important ones judging by the fact that he was speaking to the General. "Just the knowledge behind it will be enough to allow us to eclipse anything Nod has ever dreamed up when it comes to Tiberium, it's an understanding of the material that's just far and away surpassing our own!"

He's pretty excitable. Has a big damn grin on his face, too, as if all of his life dreams suddenly came true all at once.

"It's the real deal then?" Jack asked. He was significantly less excited than the labcoats, though he sounded quite hopeful.

"Almost certainly!" The scientist said, nodding quickly. "The sheer potential..." He begins to wander off, half in a daze.

I watched him go for a minute, before letting out an amused chuckle. "Does that alleviate your concerns, General?"

"Yes..." He mutters, sounding halfway distracted. "Why trade this for Firestorm?"

"Because Firestorm Barriers are a much more useful technology than the Tiberium Control Network. I, to be frank, simply do not need the latter, while the former is much more useful for my purposes."

"Very well." He sighs. "As acting head of GDI, I hereby authorize Firestorm Barrier technology, and all subsequent derivative technologies, to be released to Drich. Sandra?"

"Sending now, sir."

Sure enough, they shunted a file into the connection. I wasted absolutely no time in downloading it, and smiled.

Objectives, bar one, accomplished.

"Protocol biting you in the ass?"

"Like you wouldn't believe. Boyle couldn't just let go peacefully." He muttered, stretching out minorly.

I didn't fail to notice that he seemed more relaxed than before, less like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"A pleasure doing business with you, General. I shall take my leave, but before I do, something to give you in good faith."

I had a feeling that he would enjoy my gift.

A gift containing the current location of every single Nod structure, every single Nod plan, every single little bit of intelligence that Nod had gathered over the years, every last hiding spot they had, and, just for good measure, the names of every single major figure in the Brotherhood of Nod and their locations.

No more fanatics for you, Kane.

"Goodbye, General. This will probably be the last time we see each other."

Across the world, back in Italy, back in my landing zone, a Warp Chasm finished construction.

Across dimensions, Little1 simultaneously finished his own Warp Chasm, a pair of purple orbs sparking into existence not half a second later.

I smiled at seeing that, now having a much cheaper method of going back to Exapol than building Teleporters.

I didn't hesitate to walk through, the purple orb expanding into a large, brighter sphere, with a visual of Exapol in the center.

There was no lurching, no sudden acceleration and deceleration, just one step on Earth, and the next on Exapol.

The Wormhole closed behind me, shutting of the tiny, minute energy requirements.

I gave one last, final order to my units and structures on the other side; disassemble.

Countless Fabricators went to work, creating trillions upon trillions of nanobot, nanobots which began to quickly, quietly, non-violently take apart my units and structures, reducing them first to their constituent molecules, and then to their constituent atoms that were chaotically scattered, preventing any chance of recovery, and analysis, before they themselves chaotically destructed.

When a Commander wants to leave no trace of their technology, they really can.

Heh.

Firestorm barriers were everything I hoped for.

GDI's scientists had advanced the technology enough to not need to rely on wall segments, and to enable generators to keep it up indefinitely.

They would have been using that same technology in 2052, but with the current changes to the timeline, that probably wasn't ever going to happen anymore.

But anyway, Firestorm.

Yeah...

It was pretty fucking cool.

Energy intensive -For GDI-, it gathered and released energy in a continuous, destructive and impassable field that could block just about anything.

Just about.

The original designs of the technology had suffered flaws; namely that it couldn't be kept up indefinitely, required wall segments to project the barrier, and projected planar, flat walls instead of a dome, meaning that if something flew high enough, it could simply go over the barrier.

GDI's current design had fixed basically all of those; it could be kept up indefinitely so long as there was enough energy, it no longer required wall segments to project the barrier, and it was capable of projecting spherical bubbles. The only building required was the control center, which made it easy to deploy.

GDI had also refined the barrier itself, it was capable of letting objects through, selectively. Defenses on the inside can shoot outside, while the outside cannot shoot inside. This also applied to units and missiles, meaning that it would be possible to move units through the barrier, and launch outwards, but it would still happily intercept missiles and block off the enemy. There were still problems, it wouldn't be able to block any suitably exotic effect, it was capable of being overwhelmed by truly enormous amounts of mass, and it maintained a certain vulnerability to laser weapons set on a particular frequency.

Still there was a hell of a lot of potential there.

We gave it the standard set of upgrades, better generators, storage, armor, stealth, detection, the likes.

And then we got into the thick of things.

Fun fact, that single control center had the capacity to generate more than one barrier, and was capable of covering a radius of 10 kilometers if it was supplied with enough energy. More barriers didn't actually decrease the strength of any given barrier, just meant that more energy was required. Barrier were also capable of 'merging', forming one really large barrier when there were multiple control stations within.

Something that GDI had tested, but had never seen real use outside of laboratories thanks to the costs involved in maintaining the barrier. Costs that weren't a problem for us.

It didn't actually increase the raw durability of the barrier, just extended the size and shape of it. A suitably large impact would pierce it, but if the raw force was insufficient, it wasn't going to get through. Another problem behind it was, of course, the inability to project the barrier underground without actually destroying the ground in the process, which left it vulnerable to subterranean strikes.

There were ways around both; internal defenses in the case of the latter, more barriers within the first to block more force and shave off the energy getting through in case of the former. Barriers regenerated quickly, over the course of 30 seconds, meaning that stacking them together again and again is quite effective.

So that's what we did.

We turned the command center into another large pillar design; with multiple Firestorm Barrier emitters hidden with; 30 to be exact. Not that expensive, either in Metal or Energy, but still providing a great deal of protection for bases. The first, largest barrier would be extended the full 10 kilometer radius, with each of the next 29 barriers only a centimeter away from each other, each one individually capable of tanking 16.736 petajoules (about 4 megatons) before collapsing, with each successive layer tanking the force meant to ruin our fun.

Hypothetically, if we could focus all the force of a single nuclear missile into a single direction, we could pierce a good 15 layers of barriers. In reality, it wouldn't get through nearly so many thanks to energy dispersal.

We called it the Shield Pillar.

We're not the most creative of people, you might have noticed.

Recent technologies, and recent developments, had changed the paradigm. Scrin technology was a game changer, in multiple manners.

Consequently, that meant a change in our own paradigms was necessary.

Specifically, that of the Commander.

The Delta Commander stood approximately 15 meters tall, give or take 50 centimeters, without the flaps on the shoulders open. The average Teleporter had an internal diameter of about 30 meters, with an energy cost being presented by the range, and not the mass, which is important for reasons I'll get to later.

Previously it was economical for lots of Commanders to be created as they were; relatively small, a powerful resource core, and not taking long to build. A part of this reason was because of how fast they were- or rather, how fast they weren't. Commanders simply did not have the maneuverability to present a threat to established footholds with anything less than extreme numbers; they had neither the ability to escape, nor move around on a tactical scale to bypass defenses without raw force.

Obviously not the only reason, but a big part of it.

Wormholes- Warp Pillars, changed that. Getting a mere three of them would allow access to practically any location on all but the largest of planets, providing an extreme boost in any situation.

Another reason was that the Progenitor's lacked large-scale energy shields. Big, invincible units weren't a thing, because being big and invincible meant that a lot of heavy armor was being used, which meant the unit in question was slow, and being slow simply meant that it would have inevitably been buried underneath an unending tide of smaller, cheaper units. Now, we had energy shields that meant lots of protection for effectively little weight, enough to tank lots of smaller units or a small number of bigger units on its own.

Combined, the two necessitated a change. A Commander's weapon was good for self-defense, and for striking small groups away, but that was it, self-defence. The Commander wasn't a combat unit. The armor was meant to take a beating to allow it to survive long enough to get a base up and going, not because it was meant to be serving as an invincible wall on the front lines.

Subsequently, you didn't want one, big and slow unit, you wanted a lot of smaller, durable and quicker units for maximum distribution of forces and effectiveness.

But, again, game changers.

Shields meant small, powerful and not slow. Wormholes meant big, invincible and not slow. Together... Big, Invincible, Speedy and impossible to lock down.

So that's what we changed to. We had room to grow, all 30 meters in diameter of it.

45 meters was where we started at. 3 times the size of what we were at before, too tall to walk through a Teleporter, but we had an alternate method of travel in the Warp Chasm, now.

We didn't have to walk through the teleporter, we just had to fit through it. If we were laying down in a re-entry pod, and could fit through sideways, that would still work.

We needed the extra size for several reasons. Not the least of which was more space for our important bits, but the main reason was to fit a pair of Wormhole Generators internally, enabling almost instantaneous travel to any point on a planet. The rest of the space we had, we used for other, still important things. A Shield Generator to for the extra protection; more storage systems for both metal and energy; the whole cadre of stealth and detection. Most importantly?

27 Resource Cores, each one well protected with the Commander's armor, hidden behind immense, thick plates, and thin, weightless shields. A 3-by-3-by-3 grid, underneath the hilarious protections. Each one we programmed with rigorous safety in mind; if one was somehow damaged, it would immediately, non-violently shut down, preventing the dangerous nuclear explosion that would undoubtedly chain react with the rest, a violent explosion that would render just about everything nearby completely uninhabitable in short order. It would power 9 T2 Fabricators, because there was clearly no kill like overkill. All 27 Cores would provide 810 units of metal every second, while each Fabricator would eat 720 units of Metal over the course of normal operation. A subsequently large amount of storage was also possessed, though only a mere 20 times the previous.

It was enough that I would be treating T2 technologies as T1 instead, which is good since most of my T1 stuff was really undersized for my new Commander chassis, and my T2 stuff wasn't much bigger.

Really, aside from the Commander, everything I had was about as durable as popcorn.

For the weapons systems, I'd gone for less singularly overpowering, and more spammy spam spam. I used a total of 6 plasma casters, more or less the exact same design on the Delta Commander, except linked together and firing in a constant stream of superheated plasma balls that would -hopefully- quickly overwhelm whatever target I was shooting at. 4 Lasers were also present, four thin, blue beams possessing all the same traits as the upgraded Obelisk of Light, a powerful Alpha strike, high damage and continuous beams. I'd also equipped, of course, the Uber Cannon, the hideously powerful weapon being incredibly good at wiping out groups.

I hadn't neglected my anti-air or my anti-sea weapons either, though there wasn't actually much functional difference between them save that one shot missiles and the other shot torpedoes. Both had been upgraded with more powerful, and just plain more numerous Fabricators, allowing the missiles and Torpedoes to both fire faster than had been previously possible. I'd ensured that both of my arms were capable of articulating enough that I could aim upwards if I really needed to, as both the Lasers and the plasma casters would be very helpful in striking down aircraft.

As befitting of that, and equally suitable for the fact that it was going to be thrice the previous height, the armor was equally tricked out, the strongest we could make it without unacceptably compromising weight and speed. I liked to move, after all. The armor was strong enough to tank several simultaneous nuclear weapons, and come out expecting to tank several more.

I was hardly invincible, but damn if I wasn't going to go as far as I could to ensure that I very well seemed like it. The higher my chances of survival, the better, and I fully intended to stack the odds in my favor as much as I was physically capable of doing.

There was, of course, a problem with the design. One single, tiny problem that I honestly couldn't care less about.

The cost.

Cost in both time and in Metal, though mostly the former. Each one of those 27 Cores would take a grand total of 10 minutes, each, to construct, to say nothing of the basic frame, or any of the actual systems within.

It was a problem we mitigated by constructing all the most time-expensive parts in their own facilities, bringing the total time it would take down to a mere 20 minutes rather than a several hour long period, something we could do only early in the process before most of the armor and structural support is in place and the internals thus become inaccessible. Still, 20 minutes for a chassis infinitely superior to our own was a cost we were willing to pay.

We called that chassis the Omega Commander.

The Omega Commander chassis was effectively the only unit within our army that got that treatment. I considered our survival much more important than that of our non-sentient armies. We could replace them, but not ourselves.

We started with my body first, 37 factories constructing individual parts for it to speed up the construction, parts that were individually teleported into place to be assimilated into the frame. 20 minutes passed slowly as the Omega Commander was constructed piece by piece, atom by atom, molecule by molecule within a perfect vacuum. It was, to be honest, much the same as when the Delta Commander had been fabricated, though obviously on a larger scale.

20 minutes passed slowly, and in silence.

Nevertheless, 20 minutes passed; leaving a titan of a Commander behind in vacuum.

We checked the systems first, running tests on absolutely everything, looking for any failure, any slight flaw, anything that we might have done wrong.

We found nothing.

I smiled, and even Little1 seemed a bit more happy.

Then came the moment for transfer, moving my consciousness from one body to another.

It was a... odd feeling; one moment I was aware, before my computer core shut down and I was left completely unaware; just... existing.

The next, I was staring down at my old body, feeling the raw power flowing through my frame, as each one of my systems checked itself, my Fabricators both internal and external hissed, my shield generator hummed with power, my weapons glowing and just waiting to be unleashed.

It was exhilarating.

I moved off the platform with long, powerful strides, freeing the factory to begin the construction of a second Chassis for Little1.

An idle though sent my old body away, to stand next to Little1.

I had a feeling I'd keep it around.

A mental flex and one of my Wormhole Generators activated, forming a purplish orb in front of me that I promptly walked through, appearing some 4000 kilometers away next to the very same Teleporter I'd used to get to C&C.

God that felt good.

Little1 all but played around in his new body, like a child with a big, new, awesome toy.

It wasn't too far from the truth, really.

I was quite eager to use it, myself. Which was half the reason that I didn't stick around too long, just enough to familiarize myself with the body completely, then encase myself in a modified re-entry pod -which only just skated under the 30 meter diameter of the Teleporter-, and launch myself off.

Different system this time. 5.2423 Light Years, red giant. If previous experience has taught me anything, the characteristics of this particular system mean absolutely nothing to where I'm going to end up.

"Bring back more gifts, please?"

"Oh, don't worry about that, I will."

The fast descent from orbit to earth was almost calming. I hardly felt it, but the heat coming through my drop-pod's heat shield, the sound of air as it rushed past, the lights as we glided in sheathed by flames was somehow pleasant.

My drop-pod's sensor leisurely scanned the ground, leisurely identifying Metal Deposits for my uses, mapping the terrain quickly and efficiently. Lots of water everywhere, though there was a bunch of islands around, small as they were.

I couldn't help but notice an interference of the sensors, too. Unlike back on C&C Earth, this interference was limited to small places instead of being motherfucking everywhere.

Sighing, I turned my optics to those particular areas, trying to see if I could make out the cause.

I could, actually, there appeared to be several large... blue... crystals.

ROB, you motherfucker!

Log 23

As I came close, my sensors finally started to pierce the veil on the units beneath me, revealing odd energy signatures, asymmetrical designs and shiny, chrome seeming armor with highlights in yellow.

Seraphim.

Fuck.

They swirled around, combatting much more sensible though still odd designs, designs in green with sloping armor.

Aeon.

Double Fuck.

As I descended, another fleet of aircraft came to support them, red and black with angular designs.

Cybran.

Triple Fuck.

I hit a small bit of turbulence, shifting my course a minute fraction, but from this far up... I recalculated near instantly, realizing my new course would take me to...

The middle of the donut island Seraphim base, directly north the Aeon and Cybran bases.

Quadruple Fuck.

Right, planning time.

The world slowed to an absolute crawl as my numerous processors promptly sped up to ridiculously levels.

Cybran, Aeon and Seraphim. The latter is not good for me at all, while the first and second might be willing to not shoot me.

Planet, Blue Sky, obviously. Seems to be at the relative beginning of the mission, judging from the fact that neither of the two Seraphim islands had been cleared.

The first, closest island to the Aeon and Cybran is the one I was landing on, also the one hosting one of Blue Sky's Crystals. Directly to my north was another Seraphim Naval base, while to my north-east and south-east were two more bases.

If I remembered correctly, and I was 98% certain that I did, the north-east one was going to attempt to construct Ahwassa Experimental Bombers, which I would highly prefer to not let happen.

Directly east to those bases were more Seraphim bases, including a pair of Commanders, who were assaulting Princess Burke's compound. I'd prefer to not let the Princess get killed, so doing my best to prevent that seemed like a good idea.

Right. Problems obviously existed in the fact that I was about to land more or less in the center of a Seraphim position, and would be suitably in danger. With any luck, the explosion I kicked up would do a fair bit of damage and I could kill everything else and establish my position.

So long as I didn't shoot at the Aeon and Cybran stuff, they would hopefully hold off on trying to kill me, especially if they saw I was making a mess of the Seraphim. If not, I was opening a Wormhole and leaving to head someplace safer.

Hopefully be unnecessary, but... Well, I'll keep the option in mind.

If I could eventually establish communication, that would be great, though I'm probably going to have to work a bit to decipher their language. No telling how much it has drifted over the past 1800~ years, after all. Hopefully, it would be similar enough that I could get talking rather quickly, though I could always resort to images if I had to.

Hurray for planning.

The world sped back up again, leaving me to once more hurtle towards the ground.

This was going to suck, I can just tell.

I hit the ground screaming, kicking a dust plume up into the air, shortly followed by a wave of water.

My sensors pierced through the cloud with ease, and I was dismayed, but not exactly shocked to find that just about everything Seraphim on the island was unbothered.

I didn't wait for the smoke to clear, or even for the shockwave to begin to disperse, to start shooting. Missiles poured out of my silos, sending torrents into the Seraphim aircraft above. T2 stuff, mostly, but there were a few T3 and T1 things flying around.

I was suddenly very, very glad I'd decided to upgrade my chassis.

My missiles fire one after the other, individually tracking and destroying aircraft, but that wasn't the only thing I was doing. I spat torrents of plasma balls at the Seraphim defenses on the ground, lancing out with my Laser weapons on the smaller units and burning right through them.

They reacted quickly, defenses, gunships and bombers turning around and attempting to attack me. I relied on my shield to tank the hits, striking down the largest sources of damage -the gunships- first.

They were actually surpassing my current shield output, though not by much. In about 4 or so minutes, it would really begin to be a problem, but I'd destroy them before it could get to that.

I sweeped my Fabricator arm across the ground, channeling an immense amount of metal into the construction of six Flak towers, each of which was completed in 2.23 seconds. It ate into my Energy generation, dropping the strength of my shield quite a bit, but it would shoot down the aircraft in short order, so I considered it an acceptable loss.

A multitude of Aeon and Cybran Air Superiority Fighters came across the ocean, apparently having finished dealing with the Seraphim swarm that had been sent over. I set my Flak Towers to not shoot at them, though if they got hit by the splash damage, there was nothing I could really do. I doubted they would, as the Seraphim's own ASFs immediately flew out to meet them.

Great...

Well, out from the ice cold wastelands and directly into the thermonuclear fire.

Log 24

My three Flak Turrets fired continuously, directing an immense amount of punishment to any swarm that dared stray close. Between them, my own missiles and the Cybran and Aeon ASFs, we made short work of the Seraphim craft, sweeping them out of the sky.

I moved closer to the water and constructed 4 T2 Torpedo defences, taking the opportunity to launch several torpedoes on my own into the water, seeking out the incoming Seraphim ships and subs. A T2 Radar tower came online next, followed shortly thereafter by a T2 generator.

50 or so units were heading directly towards me, Aircraft and naval alike, so I promptly began the construction a Shield Pillar.

I fully intended to not have to deal with that.

2,500 Metal to build, 720 Metal consumption per second; it was online exactly 3.475 seconds later, the first layer shimmering into existence as a mere kilometer wide bubble, with the next 29 layers following soon after. I allowed the Cybran and Aeon ASFs free passage through, but not the Seraphim.

I fought the urge to smile as one half of a Seraphim T3 Spy Plane fell to the ground, having been caught within the destructive energy barrier's formation. Firestorm is deliciously weaponizable, and I would have had a fairly good imitation of a D-Gun if we'd been able to miniaturize it enough. No go, sadly, so I'll stick with my near impenetrable barriers of doom.

A wave of fighters, gunships and bombers swept towards me with a surprising speed, ready to come and ruin my day.

Which made it all the more funnier when they smashed into my barrier, completely unsuspecting, their hulls bending and warping from the sheer speed they were going when they hit.

Suck it, Seraphim.

My Flak towers capitalized on the grouping, promptly reducing the entire fleet into clouds of smoke and raining debris.

More barriers appeared quickly; strengthening the entire assembly dozens upon dozens of times over; though it would probably be unnecessary until the Seraphim started bringing out the bigger and more exotic stuff; in which case, the more layers, the better.

And now that I had some breathing room...

I turned around and began the construction of a T2 Air Factory, using up a part of what little space I had.

Damn space, always a limitation.

Several Seraphim units were attacking my barrier, Gunships, Bombers, Frigates, Destroyers and Battleships alike. Flak Towers made short work of the first two, while my Torpedo Defenses happily chewed through the latter; sheer excess in the face of the raw durability of the Seraphim units. They weren't piling on the energy faster than my Firestorm Barriers were dissipating it, and even if they were, they certainly weren't getting through the rest of them.

I had noted the difference in raw durability and firepower between myself and them.

My T1 units were smaller than their own in size, but possessed a better durability, with an edge in raw firepower. My T2 units also held that same paradigm, again smaller in size, though standing at a better raw durability and firepower.

I'd say that my T1 was their T2, and my T2 was their T3, but in all honestly, it was more like T1 to T1.5 and T2 to T2.5.

I didn't have direct T3 unit equivalents. And I certainly didn't have Experimental equivalents, excepting perhaps Orbital. What I did have was an edge in raw production, most (all) of my units produced faster than their equivalents in SupCom's armies, and I still had the edge in Tactical and Strategic maneuverability. Also, no unit cap, which was a thing in SupCom's canon if I remember correctly, something about the ability of the pilots to manage everything.

Also, Orbital. My Orbital presence was much greater than anything SupCom could bring to bear, which closed off that gap in T3 and Experimental Units.

In fact, Orbital is sounding like a great idea right now, some SXX's will help in dealing with the Ahwassas, which neither I nor anyone else wanted them to have.

I turned around and began the construction of an Orbital Launcher, fully intending to do just that.

"I would advise ignoring it for now, my child, it has only shown hostility to the Seraphim so far. Though, such hostility does cause one to wonder if we are perhaps not the only species the Seraphim have attacked."

He wasn't too sure, himself. But then again, the odds of a being with a strange ACU appearing more or less out of nowhere, on a hidden, secret planet, directly where the Seraphim had been, then immediately attacking the Seraphim while showing zero hostility to the Aeon and Cybran forces were so close to zero that it was the only reasonable conclusion.

"I do not believe this being is an enemy, Commander." Princess Burke chimed in. "I would advise focusing on the Seraphim for now."

Right.

Their mysterious guest hunkered down, constructing what appeared to a space launch platform.

He put it out of mind, focusing on the fleet of Seraphim ships coming down on them.

I finished the first of 5 Orbital Fabricators, immediately launching them off to low earth orbit, where they would be safe and free to rain death upon my enemies. The next four were quickly launched in short order, the 5 Fabricators more than enough to kick off everything I'd need.

One Orbital Factory, coming up soon.

In the meantime, more defenses. I plunked down several more T2 Torpedo Launchers, one by one in a line, then topped it off with a T2 Sonar station.

The Seraphim had some deadly subs and sub hunters, I remembered.

Annnddddd there they were. Hiding under the ocean won't save you from my torpedoes of doom, silly Seraphim.

I noted that several of my torpedoes were exploding before they could reach their targets, prematurely made to explode. The Uashavoh, most likely, the T2 Destroyer had a nasty habit doing that with it's anti-torpedo system. The fact that it was submersible just made it that much more annoying to attack and deal with, though it lost the Ultrachromatic Beam Generator when it did so. An acceptable loss, in many cases. It wouldn't have mattered either way, here, my Torpedo Launchers simply overwhelmed the defensive systems with sheer numbers and tore them apart in the exact same way.

Still had a bit of space left over in the water, out of the way of the Torpedo Launchers.

Smells like opportunity.

Log 25

There was a design we had access to, called the Leviathan.

Sea unit. Powerful, tough, and with many, many big guns. Expensive, at 4,800 Metal, as befitting of a T2 unit.

The T2 Naval Factory took 44.445 seconds to construct one of them, by itself, much better than the 4 minutes and 10 seconds for a Seraphim T2 Naval Factory to construct a T2 Destroyer, and the 2 minutes and 46 seconds for the same on the T3 Naval Factory.

By itself.

When I was assisting it, the entire Leviathan could be completed in 5.8 seconds. 5.797101... if you really want to be technical about it, but that's irrelevant. What is relevant is that it actually took more time for the Leviathan to get out of the way of the construction area than it did for me to build a new Leviathan. Naval is cheap, for me.

Supcom doesn't enjoy those kinds of benefits. Naval was expensive, painful, hardy and timely. Their T3 ships might superior to my own in the cases of the biggest things, but who cared when I could throw down dozens for every single one of theirs?

Not me, that's for sure.

The first Leviathan came to the front lines, just behind the Torpedo Launchers, turning sideways so that all of its 4 turrets could point outwards to the enemy.

Speaking of, a target approaches...

A T2 Destroyer, surfaced, escorted by a bunch of Frigates, Subs and Cruisers, sailed towards me, the Cruisers wiping out the air units that dared come close.

Well, if you're going to be so tempting...

All 4 of my Leviathan's turrets turned towards it, tracking where the Destroyer was going to be when the shells landed.

12 guns spoke as one, simultaneous booms of thunder strong enough to kill a man standing too close. Such was the sheer power of the broadside that the Leviathan itself was pushed back, tipping backwards quite a bit in doing so. 12 shells flew towards the Destroyer, each one spot on target; the center of the ship.

12 shells struck as one, simultaneous thunderous booms. The Seraphim ship was all but torn in half, the thin, front spike ripping from the larger and more bulbous back, the two floating parts to its left and right flung off as they suddenly stopped being held in place. Secondary and tertiary explosions plagued the ship as it fell apart, before a final, unnatural explosion reduced each and every single piece to naught but chunks of metal, slowly sinking into the ocean.

Suck it, Seraphim.

I turned around and began the construction of 6 Metal Extractors, 3 T1s and 3 T2s. I didn't have the Metal input necessary to keep constructing the Leviathans as fast as I did while my Orbital Fabricators continued to build up there. The extra 93 Metal every second would help, even though I'd still end up on a negative income. Orbital was expensive, after all. And time consuming.

My Orbital is their naval. Huh.

My Orbital Fabricators... were just finishing the construction of an Orbital Factory, which meant that I could have my first SXX platform in slightly over 46 seconds. Good.

Best not tip my hand too early, though; I'd build up a force of them before I used them so the Seraphim didn't try anything... unfortunate. That way, when I did rain death from above, it'll be a surprise!

Everybody loves surprises.

Crusader Rhiza had to admit, their new... well, not quite ally, but certainly not their enemy, was quite the shield.

Her fleet amassed, slowly building up with Omen-class Battleships and Infinity-class Cruisers, supported by an array of Asylum Shield Generators and Vesper-class Submarine Hunters. To her east, her Cybran Ally toiled away in constructing fleets of planes; Air Superiority Fighters joined with Strategic Bombers, Gunships, Scouts and Torpedo Bombers. Together, it would make an impressive offense, one that should cut into the heart of the Seraphim forces.

It seemed their strange friend was also constructing their own fleet, one large factory churning out ships at a pace that quite surprised her; less than a minute even when the ACU itself wasn't assisting it. Impressive, and worrying, but so long as that was directed against the Seraphim, she would appreciate it.

I'd forgotten one, simple fact; SXX Platforms are fucking expensive.

Even when they were eating 5/9ths of my Metal income, they still took more than 40 seconds to complete. 24,000 Metal for a single platform, to be exact. Expensive.

But given the Seraphim's complete lack of anti-orbital ability, a cost well worth it.

I probably wasn't going to get more than 3, really. Leviathan's were cheaper and that much easier to produce, while 3 would be enough for sniping the Ahwassa's and, hopefully, the Commanders. Including that one dick that always hid in the ocean and recalled in the actual mission. Fuck that guy, he was annoying to hunt down. All three SXX's had the capacity to shoot units on the ocean floor, so he was in for a rude surprise.

I continued to fabricate more Leviathans as the SXXs were slowly built in orbit, adding to an ever growing wall of guns ready to decimate any Seraphim ship that strayed too close.

It would do absolutely nothing against air units, but I had a different solution to that.

The next thing that floated out of my Naval Factory was not a Leviathan, but a Stingray; technically a long range tactical missile bombardment ship, but also one of the greatest Anti-air units in my army. Quite often, the presence of a Stingray would render air support just about entirely moot, outmatched only by truly excessive numbers and force. Multiple Stingrays had a painful tendency to stop even that, lead to assaults by air being nothing more than suicide missions in the best of cases.

Going to ruin your day, Seraphim.

Log 26

Finally, I had three SXX platforms.

I say finally like 2 minutes is some big thing I'm ridiculously inconvenienced by, but it really isn't.

My fleet of Leviathans and Stingrays has grown by a considerably margin, the former making short work of any ships that came too close, while the latter did the same for aircraft. I'd actually included a couple of Orcas within the fleet, simply to provide Torpedo defence against Submersed units. Given the Yathsou, I was probably going to need them. The Seraphim's T3 Sub Hunter is an exceedingly painful unit in the best of cases, and since it was capable of being submerged, my Leviathans couldn't actually deal with it.

The Aeon and Cybran have both been building up on their armies, Rhiza on Naval Units and the Cybran on Air Units. Lots and lots and lots of Air Units. Gunships, ASFs, Strategic Bombers, Torpedo Bombers, all the other stuff. Rhiza's own fleet was kitted out with her own good stuff, T3 Battleships, Cruisers, Shield Generators and Sub Hunters.

Probably going to launch an assault, soon.

Now that I was no longer spending anything on the SXX platforms, my fleet was again growing with a considerable speed. I waited as my SXX platforms got into range above the Seraphim island to the north east, the one where they were going to construct the Ahwassas, expanding my fleet quickly all the while.

Perfect.

I took direct control over all of my naval units, quickly arranging movements for each of them, Orcas moving into a bubble around the Leviathans and Stingrays, and then sent them off north to the Seraphim naval base.

I noted, seconds later, the Aeon and Cybran fleets beginning to form up and move north, probably seeing my own movement and deciding to run that assault of their own. I noted the Cybran's planes going out of the way to avoid my island, instead of flying through my shields as they did before, passing around. The guns remained firmly focused forwards and not turned towards me.

They moved up towards my fleet, though slightly towards the side and not directly over the ships. Thoughtful.

I stopped my fleet long before it reached the Seraphim naval base, my Leviathan's rotating to provide maximum firepower.

The Leviathan wasn't just a powerful combat ship. Each one of its main guns were perfectly capable of long range bombardment.

192 guns fired as one, all 16 of my Leviathans opening up as one, sending a rain of shells into the Seraphim base. There were a couple shield generators, but underneath the assault, they all collapsed rather quickly. Shells kept going into the base, seeking out shield generators and defenses. Anti Air, mostly, to cut out the things that could damage the Cybran's fleet of Air units. The few remaining air units over their base immediately gathered, grouping up and coming out to attempt to wreck my Leviathans.

An attempt that was promptly wrecked in turn as my Stingrays immediately began to launch missiles into the incoming craft, all 16 launching 4 missiles every second, each one individually targeting in order to maximize damage to the fleet. Too fragile to withstand the assault, and too few in number to continue onwards anyway, nothing remained but falling wrecks slowly sinking towards the water and into the ocean. Certainly nothing that could stop the encroaching Cybran craft, who ruthlessly capitalized on the already weakened defenses, finishing off what little remained and promptly beginning to wipe out the rest of the base.

The Aeon warships hadn't even reached the base before my Leviathans reloaded and fired again, ten seconds from previous. I targeted the economy buildings, the factories and the intelligence buildings, cutting off more and more of their ability to fight back. They did, however, arrive in time to deal the final, finishing blow, 38 glowing rounds from a multitude of Oblivion Cannons, wiping out the very last of the Seraphim Naval Factories.

I immediately began to move my units east, towards the base that would soon be constructing Ahwassas. The second I figured out where they were hiding...

Well.

I knew the rough locations, of course, but I would rather like to confirm them before I start raining death. My units went up, north around the island. There were 2 or so on the north end of the island, 2 more on the east and the final 2 were in the middle. Roughly.

The Cybran craft flew overhead, several scout planes going ahead of the fleet. If my own planes weren't made of paper, I might have done the same.

As it is, I had other options. Orbital options, to be exact.

My Advanced Radar Satellite came online 9 seconds later, immediately beginning to boost to directly above the Seraphim base. I enjoyed the Intel that came with it, a significant portion of planetary surface instantly being mapped out. The Seraphim units on the ground appeared as little more than visual blurs to the Satellite, but the other detection systems kicked in and promptly revealed everything, piercing the layers -many layers- of stealth hiding them. Disturbingly limited in scope, though, I could only see what was more or less directly beneath it.

Exaggeration, but the reveal radius is much smaller than what I'd hoped.

Still... there they were; 6 large signatures and shapes, the Ahwassas. Cool.

All three of my SXXs took position above a separate one. They were covered by shields, but the shields weren't being assisted, nor were they layered, so I was quite confident in my SXX's ability to take them out.

With my fleet bearing down on their front, supported by the Cybrans and trailed by the Aeon, I let them open fire.

Three thin white bolts trailed down from the sky, looking for all the world like three falling stars. 2 fell upon a single shield, hiding a pair of Ahwassas. The shield flared brightly, brilliantly, the horizontal currents of teal smoke on the shield's surface briefly standing out before fading back to normal. Seraphim shields, unlike the ones of the Cybran, Aeon and UEF, didn't change in color or in pattern when they were close to collapsing, so I had no idea how close they were.

I'd wager they weren't doing too good, though.

Another pair of blasts fell upon it 2 seconds later, the shield once more flaring brilliantly.

Ooh, it was tough.

But it couldn't hold out forever.

Another pair of blasts fell from the heavens, one colliding and splashing off, the shield flickering out. The other continued onto its target, directly into the Ahwassa. A flash of light and a powerful shockwave heralded its death, obliterated before it could even get in the air. That SXX Platform immediately began to move east, to hover over another Ahwassa. 2 seconds later, its fellow moved to join it. 4 seconds and 2 more shots later, so too did the other one.

I noted an odd movement in their planes...

What the fuck are their planes doing?

Some of the T3 ASFs began ascending, climbing almost directly vertically upwards. What, did they intend to fly into space?

They... actually could do that. T3 Cybran aircraft had been space capable, if that scene from their opening was any indication.

Um, no.

My 3 SXX's retargeted, all three firing unerringly accurate beams directly into the slowly approaching ASFs, wiping three out of the sky in very short order. 27 more were still coming, but their rate of ascension versus my rate of fire... means that will be destroyed before they get even a tenth of the way up.

Sorry Seraphim, but you're not going to fuck up my plans that way.

But just to be safe, a few Anchors...

Log 27

At some point, I should seriously consider opening communications to the Cybran and Aeon. Preferably before the battles ends, as invoking them afterwards is just asking for all kinds of awkwardness.

How to open up talks, though.

Radio?

Good a thing as any, I guess.

I started to broadcast a directed radio wave to the Cybran ACU, who I figured had the highest chance of figuring out what the fuck I was trying to do. A simple, repeating message; "Greetings, can you understand me?"

"Interesting, oh yes. It proves that they are indeed sapient, or perhaps an advanced automaton."

"I'm afraid I don't have any idea what it is saying." He stated.

"I am not surprised, my boy. It is, after all, a language from an alien species. I... What?"

"What is it, Doctor?" General Hall's voice came of the quantum connection.

"I... do recognize this language. It bears a striking resemblance to english..."

"English?" He asked. He'd never heard of it.

"Before your time, my boy, before your time. It fell out of use sometime in the twenty-six hundreds, replaced by Galactic Standard as a trade language implemented by the Earth Empire... Hmm, I can translate this for you, my boy."

The unknown language suddenly became understandable to him; "Greetings, can you understand me?"

5 seconds later, it repeated, and then again 5 seconds after that.

"Should we respond?" He asked.

"I believe so, my boy, oh yes."

"Hello," Hah! Knew they could do it. I stopped my transmissions, listening to the Cybran. "What are you doing here?"

Hmm. No 'who are you'. Rude, if it were not for the fact that it was a rather good question.

"Fighting the Invaders." I stated, making sure to place a proper emphasis on 'Invaders'. Giving the impression I have prior experience with them, alongside a suitably dramatic name, would probably make it easier to explain everything away with 'they're a bunch of genocidal dicks'. Which had the added benefit of being true, to, half the reason why I was fighting them was because they were a bunch of genocidal dicks.

"Invaders? Seraphim... why do you fight them?" The Cybran Commander -who sounded curiously like Dr Brackman, though that wasn't really a surprise- asked.

"They are murderers. Defilers. Engagers of Genocide." I said, letting a small amount of anger through on the voice. It was even that hard, I just started thinking about the billions who died on Earth when the Seraphim nuked it all to hell, and enjoyed the spike of liquid rage. Hell of a feeling, that. "I dislike them for it."

"So I see."

"You fight them. I fight them. For now, we are allies. I shall endeavour to assist you."

And with that, I promptly stopped transmitting.

Didn't want to risk the Seraphim picking up on them.

There were only three Ahwassas left, and they weren't going to be around for long. Two were hiding under a single T3 shield, but prior experience had told me precisely how ineffective that actually was in stopping me from destroying them. The final one was hidden underneath another shield generator, behind a wall of defenses that would have been effective in every direction except directly upwards.

Lucky me.

All three rained down stars as the combined fleets of the Aeon, the Cybran and myself bore down on them like an unstoppable hammer.

In all likelihood, I was probably going to lose that fleet. That's okay, I had reserves. More and more and more, growing slowly as they pumped out of my Naval Factory. The Aeon and Cybran were doing the same back in their bases, factories assisted with masses of Engineers.

The first shield took a pair of simultaneous blasts, and then another. I'd expected the 5th blast to destroy it and the sixth blast to go through but, rather unexpectedly, it took both.

I noted a dozen Seraphim Engineers underneath the shield, assisting the tower and helping it recharge quicker. They've learned, but can they keep it up forever?

Let's find out...

Another pair of blasts fell down, followed by another, and another. It tanked all of them without fail, flaring brightly every time, but not collapsing. The other shield wasn't so lucky; it didn't have any Engineers assisting it, the Seraphim clearly prioritising the shield holding the pair of Ahwassas. Their mistake; when the fourth Ahwassa was wiped from existence in a brilliant flare, I simply pulled the third SXX platform over to the other two, adding it's firepower to their own. Three simultaneous blasts fell upon it, the shield flaring brilliantly once more, but still not quite collapsing.

The next barrage did the trick, however, the first two forcing it collapse, and the third falling upon the Shield Generator itself, which vaporized in a flash of bright light.

It's dead now, you fucks.

2 seconds later, so too vanished the pair of Ahwassas that had been hiding underneath.

Great!

And now that the biggest threats have been taken out...

I'm coming for you, Commanders.

Log 28

I sent my fleets to the south-eastern Seraphim, towards the dick that always hid underneath the water. My SXXs went north east, towards the one that foolishly wasn't hiding under the water, my T2 Radar Satellite and Orbital Fabricators going along with them.

Except, evidently, not as foolish as I'd hoped.

I could tell by the simple fact that his base was covered to the god damned gills with shields, T3 with underlying layers of T2, supported by a mass of Engineers, Mass Extractors and T3 Generators, supplying the energy and mass necessary to withstand endless bombardment from my SXXs.

He'd turtled. Had he done it in response to my SXXs?

Perhaps.

Didn't mean I wasn't going to break it anyway.

I had my Orbital Fabricators begin the construction of Anchors, setting my SXXs to begin bombardment of his base, the beginning the construction of several Anchors, both to keep them safe, and to support the bombardment Princess Burke...

The Cybran ACU vanished in a flash of light, instantaneously appearing underneath Burke's shield generators. He wasted absolutely no time and promptly began to construct defenses, T2 and T3, Point Defences, Flak, SAMs and Shield Generators, bolstering Burke's already powerful defenses. Good on him, not having to worry about Burke's safety would be great.

I frowned as I took note of the Seraphim's shield arrays and the underlying Engineeer support; it was, as I expected, regenerating faster than I was dealing damage to it, even with the combined firepower of all three SXXs, and the few Anchors running support.

Lots of ways to get around it, perhaps the most simple being; More gun. Any given shield they had in their base simply didn't have the requisite durability to withstand more than 5 shots at once, so if I massed them, I would simply blow through them even faster. The second option was to hit it with units, simply go underneath the shields to blow up the Generators. Their base was light enough on ground defences that I could probably force my way through with a little bit of trouble, I suspected the mass of shields was for orbital protection only.

Those weren't my only two options, however. I had other possibilities, other chances.

One that I could make quite a bit of use of...

Briefly, my mind flashed back to the Terraformer, that one time I'd run a simulation of dropping it from orbit.

Anchors were capable of movement. They had thrusters on them, even if they were underpowered to the point of uselessness. Good enough for holding itself in orbit, and slowly, painfully, breaking it, but it wasn't the fastest thing around.

Perhaps a good thing.

I had a dozen of them by now, still shooting away at the shields, still doing nothing. The shield projected by the Generator was quite strong, but the Generator itself?

Not nearly so.

I had my Fabricators slowly push the Anchors into position, carefully rearranging them. They were in a decaying orbit, especially when the majority of their thrusters were pointed out into space. That's fine, though, I didn't intend for them to stay in orbit for too much longer.

The Anchor wasn't the most aerodynamic of things, nor was it the toughest. It was, however, enough to do this.

I specifically calculated each path they would take, the likeliest of each one hitting where I wanted them to hit.

Then, I had my Fabricators 'push' them, their tiny, meager thrusters engaging to build up some speed as they dropped from Low Orbit to the ground.

I watched as each one fell, wind and atmospheric resistance causing subtle, minor shifts in their paths, shifts that were corrected with a slight bit of maneuvering on the part of the Anchors.

There were 12 Shield Generators hiding the Seraphim from me.

And there were 12 Anchors descending from the skies.

Air Crash, inbound.

My Anchors fell with the plume of re-entry surrounding them. They weren't going too fast, but for objects of their mass?

Well, it was enough.

The plumes of fire died off right as my Anchors hit the shield, which was a rather interesting property that that I'd have to investigate later. Either way, just because the plume itself cut out, that didn't mean that my Anchors had stopped falling.

No, instead, they passed through the shields as if they weren't there, intangible to the barrier.

12 Anchors slammed directly into 12 Seraphim T3 Shield Generators, the former self-destructing and the latter almost immediately being crushed and torn apart underneath the much heavier and much more durable Anchors.

And like that, his base went from protected to wide open.

Just like his ACU.

Log 29

I didn't hesitate, didn't wait.

I simply had my SXXs open fire upon his ACU, a triplet of falling stars descending on him. All three hit, the chaotic energy release disrupting my sensors for the briefest of seconds.

Still alive, though it wasn't looking so well, it's reflective armor scorched to the point of blackness, the thinner parts broken away and shattered.

Huh.

Another trio of blasts landed on it, burning away at the already damaged ACU, shattering it further. The armor was cracked, leaking some kind of gas, sparking with energy that arced around the ACU. Tough, but one of the arms was missing, torn off by sheer force, the asymmetrical design working against it. The legs were thin, on the verge of breaking, so very close to destruction.

A third set of blasts fell, the sword of damocles finally descending in the last blow.

It was impossible to miss the explosion; the 5 pointed expanding star was distinctive, and the shockwave that soon followed was powerful enough to wipe away a significant portion of his base, transforming the ground underneath into so much as glass.

1 down, 1 to go.

I immediately started moving my SXXs to above the second one's base, my T2 Radar Satellite scanning for him.

And there he was, underwater.

Silly Seraphim, being underwater isn't going to save you.

I waited until all three of my SXXs were directly above him, and then opened fire.

Fun fact, the weapon on the SXX was more than capable of piercing water to hit units on the seafloor.

I immediately detected a buildup of energy within the Seraphim ACU, a mere second after my SXXs had fired.

He's Recalling.

That son of a bitch! Don't run from me!

The blasts reached the water and promptly burned right through it, sending up plumes of steam. They wouldn't be at full strength when they hit the ACU, courtesy of the energy bleeding into the water, but they'd still hit quite hard. Did, hit hard, that is, the blasts striking the ACU and, like, the first, scorching the gleaming armor black. So too did the second set of blasts, the bleed off in the water and steam effecting them enough that the ACU wasn't damaged as much as the previous.

The third set wouldn't reach him, I already knew. He'd started the process before the first set of blasts had hit him, and Recall worked rather quickly. 5 seconds or so if I recalled (Ha!) correctly.

The Seraphim ACU promptly vanished, water rushing to fill the suddenly absent spot.

5 seconds on the dot. Bitchin', that's useful to know.

When I hit them next time, they wouldn't get the chance to escape.

Their bases began to self destruct, leaving nothing but wreckage and useless chunks of metal behind, not even a single piece of technology that I could recover behind. Oh well, we won, and there was always next time.

I had my units self destruct, their internal nanites tearing apart everything and then breaking apart themselves. Couldn't be too careful when SupCom was about, after all.

I was well learned of opportunities by this point. Nod and Scrin were proof of that.

My Naval units slowly sank to the seafloor, while my Orbital units drifted above the planet. Their orbits would decay completely in a matter of hours, leaving them to crash, useless, far away from here.

And with no Seraphim around, I promptly began to broadcast again.

"The Invaders have been destroyed."

"Thank you for your assistance." Came the voice of the Cybran Commander. "But I have to ask, who are you?"

"You may call me Drich."

"- may call me Drich." The voice, female, synthesized, came from the speakers.

"Thank you, Doctor." Princess Burke stated.

"You are quite welcome, Princess." The good Doctor Brackman said. "I just had to prepare a language matrix, oh yes."

She ignored the doctor's verbal tics with practised ease, having long since grown used to it. Years of war, both with each other and with the Seraphim, had given her ample opportunity to do so.

She sent out a radio -Radio, she marveled- transmission of her own. "I must thank you for fighting the Seraphim, Drich, your intervention took some of their attention off of myself."

"Your thanks are unnecessary, but welcome."

"However, I have some questions for you."

"I would have been surprised if you didn't."

You guys get this one a tad but early, for reasons.

log 30

"Who are you, exactly?"

"You already know my name, but that's not the question you're asking, is it. I am... a traveller, though more of a wanderer."

"And you know the Seraphim?"

"I know them, yes, though they do not know me. Interesting species; possessing a mastery of many advanced technologies. Unfortunate species; believing it to be possible to ascend and attain perfection through their religion, with the caveat that only a single species can do so. I can see that you also follow that religion, no wonder they decided to wipe you out."

"The Way?"

"I believe that's what they call it, yes. Though that does cause me to wonder how it is you learned of it, much less came to learn of its principles... The Exiles, if I had to take a guess."

"I would not know. We did learn of The Way from the Seraphim, but why would they... no, it matters not."

"True. Although, I am now certain that it was the Exiles, there are other matters to talk about. If you have been fighting the Seraphim for so long, then you have no doubt learned of their advanced technology. As the Seraphim haven't yet crushed you underneath sheer numbers and that very same technology, I can only assume that whatever method they used to breach into this universe is either not yet stable, or not reliable. Out of curiosity, you wouldn't happen to know what method that was, would you?"

"A Quantum Rift, if those words mean anything to you."

"They do, actually. A rift in dimensions, linking realms together. Not stable. The Seraphim have the technology to stabilise this rift, and if they do, they will be able to bring forth endless amounts of reinforcements, all to crush you underneath almost endless numbers. If that happens, you lose, as I'm sure you can figure out. So I'd advise not letting that happen."

I noted Crusader Rhiza teleporting over to the Princess' compound; constructing a Quantum Gateway with the assistance of the Cybran. Given their current bases, they more than had the energy output necessary to use it.

Assuming that it was the energy costs in game were even remotely the same as here and now, anyway. And that the Princess' mass would adversely affect it.

I somehow doubted it would. No idea why.

The ACUs, they could recall. Everything else was unimportant, only the humans -which could pass through the gate- weren't replaceable.

Or so I thought, anyway.

"I must ask, how do you know all this?"

"Like I said, I am a traveller. And when one goes on my kind of journeys, they tend to pick up many interesting things. Information on the Invaders -on the Seraphim- is but one of them."

"And you're willing to give it away for nothing in return?"

"I dislike murderers. Actually, I dislike death in general. I am under no illusions as to what will happen to your species if you are unable to rout the Seraphim. And while I'm sure that you are capable of doing this by yourselves, I would rather make sure of it."

"Are you offering your assistance?"

"I... yes, I suppose I am."

I disabled my shield, partly because I wanted to seem nonthreatening, but mostly because I wasn't entirely sure how it would interact with Quantum Gates and I wasn't willing to find out yet.

Or, at least, not willing to find out while I myself was in the line of fire.

Not that I'd though there would be fire or anything, but it could be unpleasant.

I decided not to reveal my wormhole abilities. Better to have the option to bug out and not have them expect it. That mean I was heading towards the Princess' compound the slower way. I was too tall, too heavy, to be carried by a Pelican. Pelicans, however... I used them enmass in a similar rig as the Terraformers, having multiple ferrying me across the sea. It worked well enough, though I'd have to see about getting a larger and tougher transport, since I was also too large to be carried by the Astraeus.

Not efficiently, anyway.

I touched down onto the Princess' island, respectfully exactly where she'd designated. It was kind of obvious; a big, green circle with a smaller green dot in the exact center.

The exact center.

I looked up, staring at Rhiza's ACU as a large, hovering vehicle exited the compound, no doubt containing the Princess.

Time to face the music.


	4. Chapter 4: Logs 31-40

Log 31

Quantum travel was... weird.

My sensors went haywire, trying, and failing, to make sense of my surrounding environment, for all of the few seconds I was... inside?

Or was it outside?

Bleh.

The Quantum tunnel was weird, a green, chaotic yet ordered tunnel, breaching into alternate dimensional space with a pocket of realspace. That's the only real way I can describe it, it had few parallels with my other methods of FTL.

It was also over quite quickly, so I didn't have the opportunity to study it in detail.

I immediately noticed my new surroundings, an earth-like planet with slightly higher gravity, the atmosphere tinged light blue. A pair of stars hung in the sky, one less than half the size of the other.

Yeah, that'll render a system pretty chaotic.

I walked off the gate, noticing a number of units around. T3, mostly, not in large enough numbers to be a true, unacceptable threat, but given my status as an unknown, a wise precaution. I didn't begrudge them for it, it is exactly what I would have done if I was in their position.

I noted the Princess' convoy heading towards another Aeon Illuminate Compound, which, I noted, was reminiscent of her palace back on Blue Sky. And by reminiscent, I mean that it was almost exactly the same, if somehow more grand. Two more compounds were present, lined up in an equilateral triangle, a Cybran and a UEF, with another... non-descript compound, lacking the colors and architectures of all three factions- No, not lacking.

Merging.

I could clearly see, the general shape was triangular, efficient, with hallmarks of the Cybran design, however; stretching above the compound were more rounded pillars, gentle curves intermixed with slight engravings, all wrapped up within the UEF block design. Interesting.

There were defences everywhere, shields, turrets, units, three more strange designs that I didn't recognize, but seemed Cybran in the base nature.

Behind me, the Quantum Gateway flashed again as the Cybran ACU appeared, walking off near immediately. For good reason, as Rhiza came through only a few seconds later, instantly walking off to the Aeon compound.

"Welcome to Coalition Command Center." The Cybran said. "If you'll follow me, I'll take you to the ACU bay."

"Very well." I stated.

"After that, General Hall, Doctor Brackman and Princess Burke are probably going to want to meet you. Will that be a problem?" He asked.

"No. I will have to prepare an avatar, but that isn't a real inconvenience." I said.

There was a pause on his end, almost 5 seconds long. It didn't last. "You are an artificial intelligence."

There was surprise in his voice, audible even through the relatively limited radio. "I could be viewed as such, yes. Will that be a problem?" I asked, echoing his own words back at him.

There was another pause, not quite as long, but still noticeable. "No... It shouldn't."

I was half tempted to comment on the pause, but I decided to let it pass.

The world slowed to a crawl as I sped my perception again.

Avatar.

I was going to need one.

I tapped into Nod's knowledge on Cyborgs, and promptly discarded everything other than the technology. The designs were efficient, certainly, in matters of warfare and combat, but this wasn't a matter of warfare and combat. Also, all of them were masculine, so I got rid of them on principle. I wanted something a tad bit closer to my actual gender, after all.

Not that it had to look like me, but it did have to be my gender.

I upgraded the technology up to my standards first, miniaturizing and optimizing, the usual. The synthetic muscles were interesting, if inefficient, strong and durable for their relatively light weight. The Mind-Machine interface was equally interesting, but rather useless in this case. I wasn't making a Cyborg, I was making an Android. The Synthetic skin was useful, as was the nervous system.

I had the tools I needed, now to actually make use of them.

What did I want the body to look like? I could go with just about anything humanoid- and hell, even non humanoid if I wanted to.

I briefly entertained the thought of going Maverick Blade Wolf, but I dismissed it for later. When I wasn't going to meet the leaders of three factions, surrounded by their things, while they were at war against a genocidal faction.

When things are more humorous, maybe.

I decided on a human looking avatar, one best described as average. Darker brown hair, blue eyes, a plain complexion, average height if a little on the tall side. Somewhat like myself, if a little shorter and hair a little less long.

Meh. It worked.

Now, for clothes...

Log 32

A near solid wave of nanites crawled out of my Fabricators, a block of pure, bright green shifting around and about, constructing from nothing my avatar. The base, metallic skeleton was first, the necessary support structure for everything else. Then came the internals, a metallic 'heart' in the near center; in reality a very, very small Fabricator, soon followed by an energy transmitter, and then by a small energy core. The smallest, actually, enough to run the body and the Fabricator indefinitely, but useless otherwise. Aside from an equally small communicator and a processor, that was everything I put internally.

Bundles of artificial synthetic muscle fibers came after that, alongside complex, yet effective artificial nerves to control it all and register sensations. Then, the artificial skin, flexible yet strong, connecting it all.

And finally, the clothes; a simple dress, blue and black, near ankle length. Sensible jeans underneath, though it didn't really matter since the body wasn't anatomically accurate. Over the dress was a simple coat, again black and blue, though it also held highlights of gold. Much like myself, actually.

The 'hardest' part had been the vocal chords, with the subsequent lung and throat structure, but well, 'hard' was subjective.

The avatar looked good, so I spent a few seconds manipulating it, each internal and external aspect, before I was satisfied with my ability to puppet it appropriately.

I nodded, satisfied, and promptly did so.

Eyes are hard- or rather, optics that look like human eyes are hard.

Still, I'd managed. They did, indeed, look human, even if they did have a tendency to glow, and were a tad bit too reflective. Obviously not human, but not exactly obvious at first glance.

I glanced upwards at the Cybran ACU (Puppeted the body to do so, really, but it's easier to think that way.), which had settled into an alcove, several catwalks surrounding it.

The various lights on the ACU went out, followed by a large, tubular extension revealing itself from the head. I couldn't help but notice that it lined up with the catwalk exactly, and I wasn't startled when it opened up to reveal the Cybran Commander, clad in fully concealing black, red and grey body armor. The exact same as in the Cybran campaign, actually.

For some reason, I wasn't surprised. I wonder why.

He walked to an elevator, quickly descending to the ground and then walking towards me.

Another door, to the left and relatively close to us, opened up, revealing a rugged man in a blue military uniform, the UEF symbol printed proudly on the left breast. He had a sidearm, a large and heavy looking pistol, and, if my sensors were correct, was more than a little bit genetically modified. The Cybran Commander was also not entirely human, but that was attributed more to the cybernetics than it was to genetic modification.

"Commander," He greeted the Cybran first, his voice gruff, before turning to me. I noted an odd double tone in his voice, as if he was saying two things at once.

I noted him hesitate, so I decided to be helpful. "Drich." I supplied.

"Drich." He said, testing the name. "General Hall and Doctor Brackman want to see you both. He sent me to escort the both of you."

The Cybran nodded, so the soldier turned around and began walking back the way he came. The Cybran -really do need to get his name at some point- followed, as did I.

We passed down several long, sparsely decorated hallways, before arriving at a larger, and somewhat grandiose door.

The soldier knocked thrice, before opening the door to reveal a command center, equal parts Aeon, Cybran and UEF.

Literally equal parts, the room was divided into three, with a few Cybran, Aeon and UEF technicians manning their own stations in their own parts. At the center was a large holographic emitter, showing a large map of the galaxy, divided into several dozen smaller territories. There was a large, dominating amount of yellow, but there was no shortage of blue, green and red. Several Seraphim, UEF, Cybran and Aeon symbols were present, with all of the latter three possessing names underneath, while the first one possessed only designations and numbers. There was, interestingly, a number of red Aeon symbols, which I took to mean as being Evaluator Kael's group.

Overlooking all that was an observatory, where we had entered. The Observatory was also divided into three, though the division seemed more natural and less total than the room downstairs. In the center of the observatory was another small holotable, a multitude of chairs surrounding it, also projecting a map of the galaxy.

Two figures stood nearby, the first and most obvious; a holographic representation of a aged, yet wise and knowledgeable man. Doctor Brackman, obviously.

The second...

"General Hall?"

General William Hall turned around, and damn he wasn't looking too good. He stood tall and proud, but he seemed as if he hadn't slept for a decade, large bags around bloodshot eyes, standing out on a handsome face that was set into a nearly permanent frown.

He looked like he was on the edge of collapsing.

Not surprising, but unfortunate.

"Thank you lieutenant."

"Sir." He saluted, then quickly left.

"Greetings." I said, holding my hand out. He took it, shaking twice, firmly. "My name is Drich."

"General William Hall." He supplied. "A pleasure."

Not a man of many words.

I did, however, note that he had the same double-tone as the lieutenant.

"Doctor Gustaf Brackman," the Doctor introduced himself. Unnecessarily, but they didn't know that, did they?

"Nice to meet you, Doctor."

Brackman, unlike the two UEF personnel, didn't have the dual tones.

Finally, it clicked.

"Are you using a translator?" I asked.

"Oh yes." The Doctor's hologram nodded, seemingly happy. "I was quite surprised that you contacted us in english, that language hasn't been in use since 2600." He commented. "Although, that does bring a question from me."

"You are free to ask." I stated. "Though I might not be able to answer."

"This isn't the first time you've encountered our species, is it?" Doctor Brackman asked.

"Astute. No, it is not. It was, however, quite some time ago. Would I be correct in assuming that the length of a second is still equivalent to; from now," I stated, holding up a single finger, "To now?" I asked, moving the finger down.

"Approximately accurate, oh yes." He stated.

"Good," I nodded. "Am I correct in assuming that you still use years as a measurement of time, and that a year is still equivalent to 31,536,000.25 seconds?"

"Oh yes. The date is currently the third of august, year 3847."

"If that is the case, then the last time I encountered your species, the civilization of the time measured the date as october tenth, 2049." I said.

Hall recoiled. Brackman, meanwhile, simply hummed.

It was technically correct. GDI had certainly been at that date.

And being technically correct was, as I was well aware of, the best kind of being correct.

Log 33

The doors opened once more, admitting into the observatory one Princess Rhianne Burke.

I turned around and greeted her, noting the slight widening of her eyes as she took in my appearance. It didn't last too long, however. "Greetings." I nodded in her direction.

"Good evening, Princess Burke." Doctor Brackman chimed in, happily chipper.

"Good evening, Doctor." She responded, almost by reflex. "And greetings... Drich."

She too had the double tones, distinct from the resounding... 'Aeon' in her voice.

"I find that hard to believe." Hall stated. "There would have been records."

Princess Burke looked at him, confused.

"I was not discovered." And it was true, I hadn't been.

I'd revealed myself, I wasn't discovered. "And in truth, I stayed for less than 23 hours. I left shortly after downloading your languages. You've grown since 2049."

And it was the truth.

Just not the full truth.

"Very well," Hall sighed, accepting it with remarkable ease.

I couldn't say I was surprised. He had other, bigger things to worry about. Like the genocidal Seraphim attempting to wipe out the human species.

"If I may interject," Doctor Brackman started. "We have other concerns on hand, oh yes."

The galactic map shifted and changed, zooming in on one particular area. Sol, I recognized, alongside hundreds of surrounding systems.

"The Seraphim assaults have been decreasing recently, fortifying the worlds under their control, oh yes."

"Preparing for their Quantum Arch, no doubt." I stated. "You should probably try and stop that."

"Would the Quantum Arch be the technology you spoke of that could stabilise the Quantum Rift?" Princess Burke interjected.

"Indeed." I nodded.

A small wave of nanites exited my sleeves, shifting around in my palm as I combined them into a very small-scale model of the Seraphim's Quantum Arch. As much as I could, anyway, the shape had been odd and most of the pieces that comprised the Arch had been floating unattached to the structure, to say nothing of the smaller support structures. The Seraphim were inordinately fond of that little aesthetic. I wasn't able to replicate it on such a small scale, so I simply had the nanites form small, translucent connections between them.

I then formed another one, before setting both down on the holotable, a small distance apart.

"The Quantum Arch serves as a trans-spacial teleporter, a bridge between two points in space, or in this case, between two separate realms. The Seraphim's Realm -The Quantum Realm- , and your Realm. The instability of the Quantum Rift is the only thing that's preventing them from summoning limitless amounts of reinforcements, but with the Quantum Arch..." I gestured, grandly, sweeping my hand over the galactic map. "That will cease to be a problem. Make no mistake, if you are unable to prevent them from constructing the Arch, or unable to close the Quantum Rift, your species will be exterminated."

Hall sighed. Princess Burke gained a look of concern, before her face set into hard determination. Brackman didn't change his expression at all.

"Do you know where they will attempt to deploy this Quantum Arch?" He asked.

"Near the Quantum Rift, undoubtedly. I doubt that you will have much time left to go after it, too."

"Earth, then. Oh yes, tip of the spear my boy, tip of the spear." Doctor Brackman commented.

"We can't get there, we lack Earth's gate codes, and the surrounding systems are far too heavily defended." Hall noted, his voice dark.

"Oh yes, we can get them however. QAI will have access to them."

"I fail to see how that helps, Doctor, we don't know where QAI is either." Hall stated.

"Not so. My beloved Dostya recently returned from a raid against the Seven Hand Node," He said "From which she was able to acquire to location of QAI's current mainframe, on Pearl II, oh yes. If we can raid QAI, we can shut him down and gain access to the Gate Codes for Earth all at once."

"I believe we should strive forward for this." Princess Burke gently interjected. "QAI is an immense danger to everyone on the whole, the quicker we shut him down, the safer we'll be, and the quicker we'll be able to stop the Seraphim."

"Tomorrow, then. We'll need time to plan, and our three best Commanders need time to rest. We have to capitalize on this information as fast as possible." Hall nodded.

"... Perhaps, you should also take rest, General." The Princess gently broached, looking concerned.

"I'll sleep when the Seraphim aren't butchering billions." Hall stated, flatly, a determination that was harder than diamonds in his voice.

Ooh, another spike of hate.

"If you wish for my assistance, I will endeavour to do so." I noted, speaking to all three of them.

"Thank you, Drich." She gave a respectful nod in my direction. "If you'll excuse me, I do require rest of my own."

She turned around, heading towards the door. One of the aides followed her, garbed in ceremonial robes.

"She is right, my boy." Brackman said, directing a concerned glance towards General Hall. "You should sleep."

General Hall just grunted noncommittally.

I chuckled. "You are quite stubborn, aren't you?"

"I'll take that as a compliment." Came the flat reply.

Log 34

"They're moving." Hall stated.

I noted the galactic map shifting around, several Seraphim and red Aeon symbols changing positions.

Some appeared nearby Coalition territories, while others just shifted around the positions in Seraphim territories.

"Fortifying and assaulting, oh yes. We have seen this behaviour before, my boy."

"They are not usually so ordered. They attacked all at once, normally this would be conducted over the course of a few hours."

A part of the map flashed red, before zooming in. A planet, Storm according to the holomap, was now host to a Seraphim symbol.

"Storm. Of course." Hall rolled his eyes. "Do they not remember what happened the last time they tried to take that world?"

"If I were a betting man, I would wager that they simply do not care, oh yes."

"Storm?" I asked.

"A planet host to a quantum anomaly, one that makes normal quantum communications difficult." Brackman answered. "That very same trait allows those who control it a considerable degree of stealth, oh yes. There are other negative effects; such as preventing Recall, and increasing the costs of quantum travel."

"We can't let them take it, but we don't have the manpower to hold it indefinitely." Hall elaborated. He winced a second later. "And most of our Commanders are already off world, or too important to waste on such a trivial matter."

"I am available if you want me to attack the Seraphim." I stated. "I will need to construct a Warp Chasm on this planet to travel back from Storm, however."

"Warp Chasm?" The Doctor asked.

"A primary method of travelling between stellar systems for me. Links two points in space together, enabling transport between them. Cheap, energy wise, but limited in terms of throughput."

"Permission granted." Hall stated. "How soon will you be ready to go?"

"I don't know," I started. "How soon can you have your FTL ready to go?"

"We're operating off the combined output of 9 Paragons. We're not exactly strapped for energy here."

I left my avatar with Hall and Brackman, as I was perfectly capable of communicating across vast distances with it. I know that because I was still in contact with Little1, despite Blue Sky being some 489 Light Years thataway. And the source of Little1's signal not being too much further.

Hall designated a position, and I promptly constructed a Warp Chasm there. The structures weren't exactly that big, slightly smaller than a Quantum Gateway, in fact, and my Fabricators were hilariously overpowered for the job.

"If you can send me close to the Seraphim ACU, that would be appreciated." I spoke through my avatar, walking towards the Quantum Gateway.

The gate flickered, the light blue fields on quantum energies appearing. I didn't hesitate to walk through, one moment in reality, and the next viewing the chaotic inside of a Quantum Tunnel.

More chaotic than the one that had been achieved with the Aeon Quantum Gateway, actually, more energy 'bleeding' into quantum space than the other. To be expected, the Aeon's knowledge of the technology exceeding the UEF's own.

Much like the Aeon version however, the UEF version was over quickly, depositing me in the middle of what used to be a forest.

Used to be.

My sensors cut through the minor interference generated by the explosion, immediately detecting the small amount of Seraphim units only 2 kilometers away.

The Seraphim had been on planet for less than 4 minutes. He hadn't even had time to escalate to T2, yet; fully stuck in T1.

I exploited the shit out of that.

My shield flickered online as I raised my weapon arm, 4 thin blue beams lancing out and striking at the small amount of units he'd built up, scything them apart with fanfare.

The ACU turned around, immediately starting to shoot at me. Not good enough, however, the weapon didn't have enough energy output to exceed my shield regeneration. Great. I probably could have started shooting at him, but I refrained from that.

Instead, I targeted the things he had built, starting with the T1 Land Factory, sending thin blue beams and a multitude of plasma blasts at them, cutting out his support from underneath him.

"Preventing Recall," Doctor Brackman had said.

Ah hah. Opportunity.

I swept my weapon arm across, wiping out the last of his Power Generators and Mass Extractors, before the world slowed to a crawl.

This was about the best opportunity I was going to get to grab Seraphim Tech. Alone, a single Commander stuck on a single world without Recall, with communications difficult, and reinforcements far away. Unfortunately, I'd have to be careful about it. This was Supreme Commander after all, where data and information security was at a level that was well on the other side of utterly insane. If I started launching nanites, chances are that he would delete the information on his ACU, and probably detonate his ACU to boot, leaving me with nothing. I couldn't let that happen.

In game, I recalled that the UEF had the technology to defend their minds against intrusion, as demonstrated by Commander Arnold, which had been disabled when his ACU had been disabled by a lucky shot. Logic stated that the Cybrans had the same, or similar technology, given that the Aeon weren't mind controlling them, either. But that did bring into question, did the Aeon and the Seraphim have that technology?

The Aeon had The Way to protect them from such, and to enable it, obviously. There was the possibility that they possessed the technology anyway, but simply didn't make use of it. Or had tuned it to let The Way through or whatever.

But what about the Seraphim? Normal Seraphim had The Way, certainly, but Seraphim Warriors were characterised by their lack of connection to it, which rendered them sociopathic. The sole exception to that was the War Leader, Seth-Iavow, who possessed an incredibly strong connection to the Way, which enabled him to not be overwhelmed by the suffering he caused. Not only that, but the purpose of the War Leader was to enable Seraphim Warriors to operate calmly and focussed, instead of leaving the possibility of them slipping into a killing frenzy and thus alter plans drastically.

Which brought the question. Did the Seraphim have mental defenses?

I guess I was going to find out.

Log 35

I tapped into the knowledge of the Scrin, and, more specifically, the knowledge of the Manipulator Device.

I've talked about it before, some time ago, calling it a scaled down Psychic Beacon, which is still quite true. Not exactly true, as the capabilities of the two were quite different, but the comparison was accurate.

It was efficient, for Scrin technology, both size and energy wise. Conversion of energy into psychic power, storage of said power, high level manipulation of such. They had throughput, efficiency and capacity issues, so they tended towards using it on the small scale where it was more useful.

As always, my throughput, efficiency and capacity far exceeded the Scrin's own, a trait I'd abused before, and a trait that I was going to abuse now.

They had many ways to maximize psychic power, other ways to maximize the ability to manipulate it. Two exclusive paths, seemingly; extensive Power, with moderate Control, or extensive Control, with moderate Power.

In this case, it was probably better to go for the former. Better chance of getting what I wanted, since fine control was useful more or less only against masses of targets.

Zaum-Eovash glared.

The enemy attacked, laying waste to the meager forces he had built up for now. He could feel the bloodlust build up, attempting to consume his mind, but unable to breach the citadel of The Way provided by Seth-Iavow.

He fired at it, relentlessly, totally. The enemy ignored him, its strange shield defending it against his attacks, and the attacks of his units, even as the enemy cut down his support.

He didn't stop attacking, even when the enemy completely destroyed his base and his units, nor even when the enemy turned around to face him.

He cursed, regretting not having enough energy to overcharge the Chronotron Cannon, something which would have a much greater effect, doubtlessly.

The enemy didn't immediately start attacking, pausing for a few moments, before the right arm began to glow, pouring out bright, glowing green masses, which began to coalesce on the floor, underneath the shield where he was unable to destroy it for good measure.

The enemy completed whatever it was building; a surprisingly organic look

pain

Zaum-Eovash screamed.

He pushed back into his seat, feeling as if every single nerve in his body simultaneously fired as one, his muscles clenching and unclenching. He didn't notice that, however, nor did he notice the wet, metallic liquid dripping down his face. He was far too distracted by another kind of pain.

A pain of the mind, born of a conflict. On one side, The Way, the citadel and fortress of calm and control. Surrounding it, The Other. Something not of the way, not the organic adaption, not the careful enlightenment that he had long since been cut off from, not the gentle connection and empathic medium.

The Other crashed into the Citadel of Calm offered by The Way, like a tide sweeping across land. The bloodlust quieted where the The Other passed, naught but numbness remaining, even the pain was swept away by the cooling wave. The Way, brought by the War Leader, rallied, steadfast, attempting to repulse this strange, alien invader. Burning fire evaporated the wave, continuously, endlessly, but the wave seemed just as endless. And, worse, it slowly crept closer to the fires, slowly sapped away at them.

A wall fell, the flames doused, a strange feeling of non-feeling spreading over and through his mind, overwhelming. He abruptly became aware of screaming, not his own, but that of his defender, of his War Leader.

The connection cut, Seth-Iavow's presence disappearing from his mind. The citadel vanished, and the tide buried his mind underneath an ocean.

Well, it's a good thing I don't have pain receptors, otherwise I'm pretty sure that feedback would have fucking hurt.

As in, my little jury-rigged oversized taped-together Manipulator Device is on fire. It literally burst into flames. There's nothing even flammable on it! What I can clearly tell from this is that The Way and Manipulator Devices do not interact nicely. It's still working, but only just barely.

However, it's still working. And that was the important thing. The connection into the Seraphim's mind was open, available; actions could be controlled, knowledge could be attained. And that was all I needed, all I had wanted.

I idly sent a wave of nanites to repair my Manipulator Device, stopping it from degrading any further. With it as close to being ruined as it was, I'd rather not actually use it on the very real chance that something could go wrong. This was my best chance to grab Seraphim Technology, and I didn't intend to waste it, after all.

Which was why I waited until the Manipulator Device was at full operational capacity before tapping into it. Didn't take too long, obviously.

When it finished, however, I didn't hesitate to tap into the Seraphim's mind.

The ocean changed, no longer simply suppressive, but different. Stranger, absorbative. It didn't just bury his mind, but instead seeped into it, water into a sponge. What little pain he was in was swept away as it did, alleviating him of wounds he hadn't realised he had. Gaping and torn wounds, a part of his center, his core, his mind, torn out, leaving it tender. Bloodlust boiled from that spot, where there should have been the purity of emotions.

He might have tried to resist, but the peace, the calm, the wholeness, and the freedom from pain was something he hadn't experienced in centuries, torn out of him so long ago. So, instead, he gave him, accepting the peace, the quiet, the calm.

It passed through him, assimilatory, yet separative, seeking knowledge and understanding, absorbing both. Codes, technology, language, he thought of them and the tides swept over them, too.

All too suddenly, a multitude of currents pulled at his mind, pulled at his body. He didn't try to fight it, letting himself be pulled along with the currents.

In the physical world, he raised his hands, sweeping over the control panels on his ACU. A flip of a switch, and his ACU cut communications. Another disabled the Recall Beacon, while yet more began to disable the safeties present. One switch, and the automatic self-destruct was disabled; a second, and the information deletion procedures were wiped away; a third, the technology capture prevention protocols shut down.

A fourth and fifth cause the quantum communications to open, connecting to the ACU in front of him. The receiver was different, not designed for such purposes, but the connection sill formed, unhindered by the anomaly over such a short distance.

A sixth, and final, switch activated a transfer of data, dumping everything contained within his ACU into the other, entire knowledge banks of Seraphim technology, as much as his level of clearance had allowed him to access. As a warrior who had lived for centuries, that was quite a bit.

I didn't fight the urge to smile as the Seraphim - Zaum-Eovash - happily dumped everything in his ACU's systems into mine. It was a lot -48.76 Zettabytes-, but not quite as much as I had been hoping. The science was there, but not all of it. The technology was there, but, again, not all of it. In some cases, Zaum himself knew more than was contained on his ACU; matters of culture, society, history and some aspects of science, being all four of them, actually.

He'd been... well, the closest equivalent in Human society would be a cross between an Engineer, A scientist and a Historian, before he became a Warrior.

His memories were interesting, curiously absent on how that happened. His last memory before he became a warrior was... vague impressions of an attack? Explosions, mass amounts of pain, intermittent flashes of consciousness in between unconsciousness. He'd woken up days later in a Seraphim equivalent of a hospital, the War Leader of the time standing next to his bed.

And, most importantly to him at the time, lacking his connection to The Way. The War Leader had told him of how shrapnel had been responsible for that, how he'd been lucky to survive, but had been unlucky enough to have been permanently severed from The Way. Interestingly, this same event also told the tale of another alien species the Seraphim had fought, and successfully defeated. Warmongers, apparently, who had wiped out several more primitive species before the Seraphim had discovered them in the process of wiping out another.

That species didn't exist anymore.

Literally nothing of them remained, they had been purged on a galactic level.

But I digress...

Across the stars, my avatar looked upwards to face General Hall. I briefly accessed the Seraphim's data, pulling out the current language in use by the UEF, Cybrans and Aeon. Something they'd gained from QAI, some time ago.

"Say, General, do you want a Seraphim ACU?"

Log 36

A UEF Continental transported the deactivated Seraphim ACU to a special containment bay, one that contained immense amounts of Aeon, Cybran and UEF technologies.

"It seems almost unfair, oh yes." Doctor Brackman lightly commented.

"I am a brutally efficient, self replicating mechanism of war. I am under absolutely no compulsion to be fair about it."

The Doctor gave a chuckle. "I did not say that I did not appreciate it, oh yes. I do wonder what I will be able to lift from this ACU, the last one self-deleted most of its files, oh yes."

"Speaking of," I started "I was able to pull some information of my own."

"I noticed, oh yes, I noticed. You're speaking in Galactic Standard."

"I was wondering how long it would take you to comment on that. But, anyway, one of the more interesting matters I was able to get my hands on was a rather... rudimentary understanding of the nature of the Quantum Rift. More relevantly, methods of closing it."

Thank you for that, Zaum. I'll make sure to put your knowledge to good use by shutting down your invasion, destroying your goals and ruining your plans.

"It is not, unfortunately, easy. The two most viable ways of doing so require technologies and methods not easily accessed. The first method requires the ability to manipulate quantum energies on an immense scale, which you do not actually possess. The second requires access to incredible sources of energy, and close range access to the Rift itself."

"That could be a bit problematic, oh yes."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Certainly. The first method of closing it is to invoke a quantum disruption; a large scale quantum disruption at that, one that would render quantum travel impossible anywhere within 50 light years of Earth for decades. The second method is to invoke an overload; channel immense amounts of energy into the Quantum Rift and force it open wider. Doing so will cause it to reach a point where it will become unstable, at which point, if the energy source is cut off, it will undergo a collapse, forcing the Rift closed. It has its own problems, however, collapsing the Rift that way will still leave the dimensional barriers thinned, something that will take years to restore to proper. The Seraphim will still be able to re-open the rift, but then you could just close it again."

"But it is viable?" Hall asked.

"Yes. Not the easiest thing to achieve, but viable."

"There is another option." Princess Burke started.

When the fuck did the Princess enter the room? And wasn't she off resting?

"If I can get close to the Rift, I will be able to force it to close."

"Why I am I hearing a 'but' there, Princess?" Hall asked.

"In all likelihood, doing so will leave me stranded on the other side of the Quantum Rift."

"Unacceptable." Hall stated, immediately. "You're far too important to do so for anything less than the absolutely final option."

"Oh yes, to say nothing of what will happen to you, Princess."

"I fully prepared to lay down my life if it means the salvation of Humanity, General, Doctor." She stated.

"I have to agree with them, but I can understand where you're coming from. Still, you don't need to sacrifice yourself, getting you to the Quantum Rift safely would mean that we could try the other option."

She nodded.

"Still have other problems, however. The Seraphim didn't have Earth's Gate Codes, so we can't the attack immediately."

"QAI must be destroyed, oh yes. Must be destroyed. We should attack as soon as possible to capitalize on our advantages, oh yes."

Seraphim tech...

Oh, baby. What a present. I give myself the best gifts. Myself and Little1.

The Seraphim's knowledge was advanced, especially of quantum, temporal and spatial sciences. This was, of course, previously obvious, their knowledge had exceeded that of the Aeon, after all, who, in turn, had exceeded myself, the UEF and the Cybrans.

We went through it all, all of what I grabbed, with an exceedingly fine brush.

Defensively focussed as I was, I took interest in the technologies related to it; armor, shields, countermeasures.

Seraphim Material Sciences outstripped our own, their armor composites were lighter and thinner for a certain degree of protection than our own could achieve, capable of distributing energy and force better than we could. It was a molecule we hadn't seen before, though one that wasn't exactly the most difficult to reproduce. We saved that, and made note to use it in later armor composites. I was going to have to upgrade my Commander body with this, which would probably see me a 13% increase in raw durability if I used it in the same sizes as my normal armor was.

The Seraphim, courtesy of their advanced knowledge, had a variety of systems to defend against a variety of 'strange' effects. Chief among them were defences against teleporting, a dimensional 'block' that would prevent unfortunate cases of telefragging. Both to others, and to oneself. Others existed, one was designed to prevent time stops- no, nothing quite so limited, temporal manipulation in general. The background behind that particular example of technology wasn't present in the ACU's databases, but in Zaum's memories...

It had arisen a couple centuries ago when the Seraphim were playing around with temporal manipulation on a large scale, attempts at time travel. Attempts that hadn't succeeded, but attempts that had brought them the majority of their knowledge on temporal manipulation. Slowing, speeding and stopping time had been as far as they could get on any truly massive scale, all three of which required immense amounts of energy as what they were attempting to achieve became more and more powerful, though other uses obviously existed.

Copy, and Copy. Don't mind if I do. We isolated those mechanisms and immediately went about installing them, as they weren't particularly large and thus wouldn't compromise our armor and designs, the internal nanites on our chassis' making the minor modification.

We took a look into their energy-matter conversion systems, something that I considered a main prize, as it was a technology that we did not possess before. Efficient, useful. And, true to form, it was the campaign version instead of the multiplayer version. 12 Mass for 1000 Energy.

Oh, baby.

We will be having some fun with you, yes we will, yes we will.

Efficient, utilises quantum duplication to directly convert energy into matter. Requires a catalyst in the form of the matter it was duplicating; normally Protons, Neutrons and Electrons. Could be other types of matter, I realized, the anti-matter equivalents of all three particles, or even other options. That system of matter fabrication tied in with the Seraphim's method of construction; which was surprisingly reminiscent of Effectors in idea. Protocrafter does an extremely small-scale manipulation of electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear forces to merge Protons, Neutrons and Electrons into atoms, then manipulates the atoms into molecules, which are then used to construct buildings and units.

Each atom, each individual molecule is manipulated on a very fine quantum scale, moved and repositioned, merged and unmerged, designed into a blueprint measured right down to the femtoscopic scale, which is where the Effector part comes in - in idea, not in actual function -. Further, that same manipulation is what also enables the Reclamation, Capture and Repair functions. Reclamation was Construction applied in reverse, Capture was the direct, physical manipulation of the systems of what was being captured, and Repair was simply Construction except instead of building from scratch, it was filling in holes.

The entire process was, naturally, very energy intensive. Not (usually) a problem for the Seraphim, not a problem for us.

As a point of order, direct manipulation of matter. Separate from our own nanite based method. This was important, because it pushed through the one major barrier in our ability to construct Commanders; or, more specifically, resource cores.

They were too complex, too delicate to do it in any way but slowly with nanites, but the Seraphim protocrafters were accurate, and reliable, enough that they could be used to speed up the process dozens of times over. 11 minutes down to 30 seconds.

The advantages, and possibilities, were self evident. If I constructed a factory dedicated solely to the mass production of said resource cores, I could quickly and massively jump up my own economy without having to rely on Metal deposits or Energy Generators. An economy that would operate ex nihilo to boot. Obviously, I'd have to protect those Cores out of concern of detonation, but... the potential. If I merged it with the Hub Network, for example...

Food for thought, for later.

As an aside, I still haven't figured out the deal with the Seraphim's fondness of their floating/disconnected design. Not even Zaum knew why it was like that. I suspected sheer ontological inertia, they've been using that aesthetic for so long they just don't bother to deviate from it. That it also looked pretty was just a bonus, and their technology was advanced enough that they could accept the honestly rather small loss in effectivity involved.

So, while they could abandon the aesthetic and go for a more practical design, they simply prefered it.

To be honest, I honestly wouldn't mind using it myself if I wasn't designing for full war machines. The asymmetry would have to go, but it did look pretty awesome, and the chrome polish material was very nice to look at. Better than the semi-organic/crystalline aesthetic of the Scrin, and the red, black and menacing designs of Nod, in my opinion. Mildly wasteful, but still quite a bit practical and pretty.

I might even be able to use the hovering/fixed positions of them for different purposes. Build a gun and mount it on one of the floating pieces, and I could use it as a fairly effective weapons platform. The Seraphim normally had their pieces quantum-locked in place relative to another piece, or pieces, but it wasn't like they had to be.

Moving on; other Seraphim stuff of interest; weapons. Oh wow, they had a variety. Many and many and many and many. Most of which was already designed to the scale that we worked on, with examples above and below. Nearly all of which we wouldn't be able to increase the effectiveness of. We could use the tech, sure, but the only options we had to increase and decrease the effectiveness of was scaling the technology in question up or down, which wasn't always an option. Sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. The Othe Tactical Bomb was perfectly scalable for example, the only difference between the T1 Bomber version and Experimental bomber version was in sheer size. The Gatling Plasma Cannon, however, wasn't so scalable, which was why it was mounted only on the Ythotha where it was actually useful. If it got much smaller, it was unable to handle the heat, while making it bigger didn't meaningfully increase the effectivity.

Still, we were going to use quite a bit of it.

That wasn't it, however. I took an interest in the Restoration Field and the Nano-Repair Systems present, both of which were very interesting. The former because of the ability to supply mass and energy to everything within a very large radius and effect repairs, and the latter, rather ironically, not because of the ability to effect quick and massive repairs upon the ACU itself, but rather because of the ability it had to strengthen the integrity of the ACU.

It was a re-application of a technology they already used; quantum locking. They used it to keep the various floating pieces of their designs together, but they could also use it to massive strengthen a unit by locking the component molecules in place. It was used on the Ythotha, which was part of the reason why the flimsy-looking bot was so incredibly hard to kill. Incredibly hard, but not impossible. The Seraphim were incapable of using it to render something truly invincible, so with enough energy, it absolutely would be overwhelmed.

But, it was an incredible increase in durability, and an increase in self-repair to boot. We isolated the systems and mechanisms for it, and then replaced a few of our internal Fabricators with them. 3, to be precise, for redundancy and to work alongside the other Fabricators. They didn't stack together for the increase in durability, but the redundancy was nice.

Thank you, Seraphim, I will be sure to use these upgrades against you as much as I possibly can.

Log 37

Another day, another operation.

Probably a pair of them, actually.

"This is it, my boy, QAI must be destroyed, oh yes, must be destroyed."

"We're hitting Pearl II today, QAI has the gate codes to Earth, and we need to capture them. Commander, you will be gated in; here" He said, pointing towards a particular spot on the holomap. The Cybran -Ivan, Brackman's clone- nodded. "Commander Drich will be gating in right next to you," My idea. "And will defend you while you prepare your base. She'll supply you with her excess Energy and Mass, so you're gating in with full Tier Three Engineering online."

Ivan nodded again, so Doctor Brackman took over. "You must establish quickly, my boy, and destroy any bases QAI has in the area. Commander Fletcher will gate in once you have established a position for him, oh yes."

Hall started again. "Once you have secured the area, Doctor Brackman will gate in. You need to escort him to QAI's mainframe, where he will destroy QAI and grab the Gate Codes. Failure is not an option, Commander, if you are unable to win, mankind is doomed."

"I will not fail then." He spoke.

"Excellent, my boy, excellent."

"Be ready, you gate in two."

The signature explosion of Quantum travel was an almost welcome feeling, by now. Twin, simultaneous explosions announced our arrival on Pearl II, no doubt alerting QAI to us.

I didn't give him the chance to try anything, immediately placing down a Firestorm Shield Pillar, and then another, and then another, and then another. The four pillars, and 120 layers of 3 kilometer wide barriers, would serve as a powerful protection against whatever QAI would throw at us.

Unless he decided to start lobbing nukes.

I turned around and added another 5 to those 4 pillars, the closely packed 3-by-3 grid adding an additional 150 layers of barriers to our defense.

Alright, now I'm a tad bit more confident of my defense.

My Cybran companion finished the construction of a Land Factory, immediately beginning to assist it to T2. I, meanwhile, began to construct a few defences, Flak towers out of the way of his construction, T2 Laser Defenses and a couple Obelisks of Light.

The first few air units arrived shortly- T3 Gunships, actually, one of which attempted, and failed, to fly though the barriers. All of them began to attack the shield proper, but didn't get too far before they were promptly and violently destroyed.

Good.

Ivan pumped out the third T2 Engineer, and then a fourth. I felt reasonably confident that our defenses were secure enough, so I turned around and began to construct an Anti-Nuke Launcher.

Best not to be caught off guard.

I had only just begun to construct it when an alert from Ivan's ACU pinged me.

[Strategic Launch Detected]

What, only one?

Bitch please, QAI, you should know better than that. Probably testing our limits, seeing the strength of the barrier; the AI was pretty competent. Was meant to be pretty competent.

Meh, whatever. It shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I wouldn't have an Anti-Nuke ready in time, but, well, 270 layers of Firestorm Barriers. There wasn't much that actually could get through that. A few things, but not much.

Will have to be wary of teleporting units, the barriers won't block that. Lots of internal defences should discourage that, though.

My sensors pierced the veil on the nuke, a Cybran Liberator Missile. Yeah, definitely testing our limits. If he was trying to annihilate us, he would have sent way more. Or, who knows, maybe he actually believes it is enough, I certainly don't.

I had another 15 seconds left to go on my Anti-Nuke Launcher, and another 8.9~ seconds for each Anti-Nuke, so I couldn't exactly do anything about it while it descended upon my shields.

Physically blocked; it detonated, a blinding flash of light that broke 6 of my barriers.

Six. Pretty impressive considering less than half the energy being released was actually impacting the barriers.. Not nearly enough.

Ivan's ACU pinged mine again, another pair of warnings about strategic launches being detected.

Annoying voice thing.

Also, only 2? The fuck are you up to, QAI? Why only two instead of completely overwhelming force?

I finished my Anti-Nuke Launcher, and started construction of the first Anti-Nuke.

I... wouldn't have it finished before the pair of nukes being sent would hit, but the next one after-

My sensors once again pierced the veil of stealth on the nukes, and I beheld the sight of a pair of Yolona Oss missiles descending upon us.

Oh.

Huh.

Log 38

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!

Why is there a pair of Yolona Oss?! Why are the Seraphim here?!

One missile was 5 seconds behind the other, trailing after; suitably outside of the blast radius to not be destroyed by the detonation of the first.

This was going to suck.

The first missile fell, colliding with my barriers, 192 of which promptly and instantaneously vanished; something which implied terrible, terrible things about the yield of those weapons since that energy hadn't been directed at all.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna stay away from those.

The second one descended, crashing into the remaining outermost barrier, wiping out the rest of them without so much as a by your leave. The energy, spread out and decreased by the barriers, was still enough to set nearby trees ablaze, the wood and leaves simply bursting into flames.

Alright, Yolona Oss dangerous. I'll take note of that.

A wing of gunships came into radar range, closing the distance with haste. I turned around and added a couple more Flak Towers to my defenses, before continuing to assist my Anti-Nuke Launcher.

Actually...

I remembered just how frustrating it was to deal with the Yolona Oss; requiring two anti-nukes to deal with each missile, which took way too damn long to build. The only time I'd ever managed to indefinitely hold one off was with the UEF Kennel Drones deployed enmass.

Only 1 Launcher; that is.

There were 2, currently. And my shields had proven capable of blocking them, when there were a lot of them.

Hmm.

I abandoned the Anti-Nuke Launcher, turning back towards my current group of Shield Pillars. I didn't expand them outwards this time, but rather upwards, adding Pillars on top of the previous ones.

The first one, starting from the center, I used differently from the others. Instead of stacking all thirty barriers closely together, I stacked them in groups of three, each group 100 meters away from the other, expanding outwards. The idea being that the nukes would hit the outermost barriers, destroy them, and then disperse immense amounts of energy before they hit the next group, and then the next group. The others, however, I continued as normal with, adding more and more layers onto the previous barrier. Well, adding on to it when the other barriers came online again.

In about 20 seconds. Good.

The first barrier flickered online, admitting slightly over a third of the gunships that had passed, the rest being stuck outside as another 2 layers came into place shortly thereafter.

Damn. I'd hoped to cut them all off, but the forty or so gunships that had made it through was better than all of them, I guess. My Flak Turrets began to aim in preparation, while I continued to construct the rest of the Shield Pillars.

"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us." Ivan noted. His mass of Engineers assisted his factory, constructing the second T3 Engineer.

"We do." I agreed. I was prevented from saying anything else when a third party promptly began broadcasting to us.

"You have no chance of defeating the Seraphim."

"Oh, good, QAI." I started, broadcasting back with a faint note of faux-happiness in my voice. "Tell me, how does it feel to be a slave to a bunch of religious nuts?"

He didn't respond.

Drich: 1, QAI: 0.

Yeah, whatever, minor victory at best, but still!

It's the principle of the matter.

Ivan, now having 5 T3 Engineers, began to construct some T3 Economy of his own, not reliant on my excess. In truth, I myself was going to need some economy in short order, if I actually wanted to contribute more than just defending indefinitely.

Luckily for me, I had new options.

Time slowed to a crawl as I began to actually consider them.

Best and most efficient way to get new resources; depends. Time, space or metal efficiency?

Space and metal-wise, Resource Cores were the go-to construction. Time-wise, considering my current construction capacity, I could be going for Metal Extractors and Power Generators, but the former was limited to spots that weren't exactly the most common thing, and the latter was ridiculously massive. If not for the Seraphim Protocrafters, I wouldn't have even considered Resource Cores, however powerful they were.

I couldn't, however, simply construct them by their own, they were way too fragile, and produced far too large of an explosion to do that. Too big a target for too much potential devastation.

They'd need to be protected. Armored, and preferably mobile. A moving frame.

A moving frame, like a Omega Commander.

Hmm.

I'd need Protocrafters, lots of them, to be able to produce an Omega Commander with any degree of haste, but every one I did construct would be a powerful Fabricator, Economy and Offensive unit all at once. Don't generate a new AI, and I could use them expendably, too.

I'd need a very large factory; one that could contain the entire Commander within a vacuum, equipped with lots of internal Protocrafters, sufficiently armored to withstand attacks on it.

But these were things we could do, rather easily. Granted, using it to construct anything else would be inefficient, but...

Oh well.

Design, design, design and design...

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Drich

Drich

Log 39

Remember how I said 'big factory'?

Well, I was referring to the scale that I had previously been operating on.

Didn't mean that my... well, I hesitate to actually call it a factory, since it looks more like a large, wide cylinder and is made for the sole purpose of building the Omega Commander chassis, but, well, factory.

"Construction Pod?"

"That is much better, thank you Little1."

Right, yeah, Construction Pod.

Tall, wide, and possessing a frankly excessive amount of Protocrafters hidden on the inside, enabling the quick, fast production of a full Chassis. And by 'quick' and 'fast', I mean 1 minute and 7 seconds.

Which is pretty good, if I don't say so myself. Not quite the end-all be-all of everything, but I would effectively double my economy in 67 seconds.

Which wasn't so great when those Yolona Osses could fire every minute.

The world sped up again, the small fleet of gunships that had managed to get under my shields only now just running into range of my Flak Towers, which promptly, quickly, and mercilessly opened fired upon the group.

Upon the spread out group, actually. The fleet was a lot less compressed than it normally was, with lots of space between each aircraft. Spreading out so as to avoid the worst of the Flak, clever, clever, QAI.

Unfortunate, but clever.

My arm articulated almost 180 degrees, the odd orientation doing absolutely nothing to my accuracy, tracing bursts of plasma into the fragile 'wings' of the T3 Wailers, lasers striking out at the thinner, less protected parts, carving off piece after piece of armor. My missiles deployed with haste, an entire torrent quickly pouring out and into the encroaching fleet.

Behind me, a Cybran Banger rolled out of the Land Factory, immediately orientating and firing into the Gunships, a second and third quickly following it out of the Factory and opening fire.

The Gunships didn't stop to attack my Flak Towers, instead bypassing it and going straight for...

Going straight for Ivan.

I immediately ran estimates, how much damage they were taking and how much damage they were dishing out, checking to see if they would breach the integrity of Ivan's ACU. They... wouldn't, at the rate we were destroying them, but his ACU would end up pretty banged up out of it.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Alright, no more miss nice girl.

My Construction Pod finished building, so I immediately began work on more Flak Towers, shooting down the Wailers as I did so. Ivan himself continued to aid the construction of more Bangers, the Mobile AA Flak aiding in destroying the smaller, but still numerous group. Or, at least, right up until he and all the other Engineers assisting the Factory shifted slightly, constructing a T2 ED1 Shield Generator. Dirt cheap and building quickly, though not quite as powerful as the other faction's versions. Still, it would be more than enough to keep him safe from the Gunships until they were destroyed.

Good thinking, Ivan.

The rest of my barriers came online again, flicking online one after the other; lovely, lovely defenses.

I feel much safer, now.

I continued to shoot down the other gunships, Ivan adding more and more Bangers to the group he already had. They rained from the sky, one after the other, but there was still enough of them to begin plinking away at Ivan's shield. However, unfortunately for them, this also caused them to bunch up, coming close together. The entire group died in short order, crashing down upon Ivan's shield.

Whooh.

Great, I had about 25 seconds before the next pair of Yolona Oss Missiles were launched. The spaced apart shields should be able to block it but the thought itself was rather terrifying.

The Yolona Oss was called a Game Ender for a reason, after all. And I really didn't like being on the wrong end of them.

I also didn't like not having enough Anti-Nukes to not need the barriers. Say what you will; but the anti-missiles were kind of annoying with how slowly they produced. And how useless they were at anything other than defending against nukes.

Which they honestly weren't too good at anyway. They held way too few anti-nukes for that particular job, though they worked in the context of Planetary Annihilation's single-nuke-then-rebuild Launcher.

They don't work well against massed nuclear weapons, which was an oversight I was going to have to correct.

Time paused as I considered my options. More missile storage?

Didn't solve the problem of construction speed, though it would make it server better against mass nuclear weapons.

More, and better, Fabricators? Would represent a powerful drain on the economy to construct the anti-nukes with any sort of speed, but it was an option that could deal with more launchers.

Perhaps... a non-missile based system? I let my processes stall while I considered it.

I... already had the Umbrella, which, as a defense platform, would be pretty good for shooting down missiles. 180 degrees orientation, a fairly powerful weapon, fast firing and, most importantly, cheap.

However, to shoot down missiles would require a few things. First, the turret would need to be able to track quickly, faster than the already considerably fast Umbrella. The gun itself would also require upsizing if I wanted to be able to shoot them down in singular shots. A longer barrel for the electromagnetic acceleration, so it didn't miss- or rather, had less chance of missing...

All of which were doable. Easily so, perhaps.

"Why not a laser?" Little1 asked.

"Mostly concerns about power. Atmosphere bleed-off is also a problem, the laser will require more power than an upscaled ion accelerator to get the same effect."

"Tracking and missing would cease to be a concern?"

"True. Upscaling the Obelisk would allow us that exception, but there's still the problem of atmospheric bleed. Outside of atmosphere, it would be much more effective, but in this situation, the ion accelerator still works." Or so I believed, anyway. "As an aside, you are free to work on projects if you want to, Little1."

"Oh."

He stopped talking after that. I noted him doing exactly what I had said he could, beginning his own designs. I wondered what he would come up with...

Oh well, later.

Now, could I fit another few layers of accelerators into that barrel...

Log 40

As was customary, I finished my designs quickly. It had actually taken less time than normal, owed to my growing experience at doing so.

I didn't wait for the nukes to start coming, I just built five of my new Anti-Nuclear Ion Defenses in preparation. I kept the previous Anti-Nuke Launcher up, just incase something went horribly, horribly wrong.

I hoped that it didn't come to that.

[Strategic Launch Detected]

Yeah, that's going to get real annoying, real quickly. Useful, but annoying.

I constructed a T2 Radar, finally and briefly dipping into a negative Metal income, though I still had more than enough in storage to keep going like that for a long while.

And... there they were, travelling at a relatively fast past pace. I frowned as I noted a large collection of other, bigger units, on the outer edges of my Radar's range.

I had a feeling that would get problematic in the future.

Thankfully, I had my own options -my own units- that I could use to deal with it.

Laaateeerrr.

When there wasn't a pair of super-nukes coming down on my head.

Which were... getting pretty close. And, more importantly, now entering the calculated maximum effective range on my Ion Defenses. Maximum effective range on Nukes of SupCom's durability, that is.

My Ion Defenses quickly turned and orientated, tracking the nukes in less than a second. Good, that worked as intended. They reoriented by a minor degree, calculating where the nukes were going to be by the time the shot reached that distance.

And then, they fired. 5 small, blue spheres of doom, ion packets accelerated to an appreciable fraction of the speed of light, lanced out, looking more like thin, blue comets rather than the bolts they were meant to be. All 5 hit with unerring precision, striking the exact same spot on the Yolona Oss missile, tearing through the armor and breaking into the much, much more delicate insides.

The missile exploded not a second later, thankfully not detonating its payload.

5 seconds later, they fired again as the second missile trailed after it, breaching into the exact same spot, and tearing apart.

Score one for me.

I took the opportunity to construct a T2 Vehicle Factory, confident in my defenses being able to handle the pair of Yolona Oss.

For now, anyway. The more time we gave them, the more chance they had to come up with something that could breach the barriers, which was something that I really wanted to avoid. To that end, I- we, were going to need to go on the offensive soon, to actually win this. I'd need an army to do so, however.

Lucky, then, that I could easily procure one.

Vanguards were the best choice for frontline combat; being cheap, yet very strong and tough for their price. The Uber Cannon on them was powerful enough to pose a threat to a lot of things that QAI and the Seraphim Commander could throw at them, though I'd need massive numbers of them to cut down Experimental units.

I'd need mobile anti-air, too, since Vanguards weren't capable of that particular role. Spinners, or alternatively Stingers, for the Bot version. I prefer Spinners of Stingers, though, they have a higher damage output and more health to boot. I suppose I could use Doxes in that role, but I'd need to build a truly excessive number of them. Which, since they suffered from the Mech Marine Problem, wasn't exactly the most viable of options, I'd need to to be able to construct a continuous stream of them, unhindered by the speed of the Doxes themselves.

Although, that was an option. It'd require a redesign of my factories to achieve such, but I could do it. It wouldn't actually require much of a redesign, either, just a greater degree of articulation capabilities on the Fabricator Arms, a slight change in programming to not wait for the unit to get off the factory, but begin construction of another unit beside that one...

Hmm.

The world slowed to a halt as I implemented those changes across my factories. Though it was unfortunately non-viable for Naval and Air, it was still a good boost to the Bot and Vehicle Factories, so I intended to make use of them both.

I plunked down a T2 Bot Factory next to the current Vehicle Factory; setting it to Continuous and queuing up a Dox. I did the same for the Vehicle Factory, only I queued Vanguards instead of Doxes.

I checked the progress on my Construction Pod, noting that I had about 40 seconds left before the Omega Commander Chassis was complete and my economy doubled. Another 1 minute and 30 seconds after that, it would be tripled from my current economy, at which point I could start going fully crazy on my production.

Here I come, QAI.


	5. Chapter 5: Logs 41-50

Log 41

My Omega Commander finally, finally, finished construction, the cylinder opening with a hist as air sought to fill the vacuum. I welcomed the extra Metal and Energy, immediately taking direct control of the Chassis, directing it over to myself.

But first...

I had it turn around and begin to construct a second Construction Pod, even as the first one hissed closed and the air was pumped out once again.

They began construction at almost the same moment, the former only an instant before the latter. My economy would doube again in another minute and 40 seconds, but I wouldn't be able to keep that kind of expansion forever. I'd run out of space before I could do so.

Damn space. Always a limitation.

I get the feeling that I've repeated myself way too damn much when I say that.

But it is actually, really, seriously a problem. One that I still don't have a method of fixing. However, it is also a problem that is only truly inconvenient, instead of crippling.

I'm being dramatic, more or less.

I'd built up a sizeable number of Vanguards in the time it had taken to complete the first Omega Commander Chassis, slightly over 20. They took 1.9~ seconds to produce when I was assisting them. A far cry from the Doxes, which took 1.083~ seconds to produce when I wasn't.

I set my other Commander to assist the T2 Bot Factory, which would, according to my calculations, jump up the speed that the Doxes were being built at to 12 every second. I was going to need that, since Doxes were about as durable as paper and were only really effective when they were deployed in numbers best described with the words 'seemingly endless'. Numbers that I could achieve.

Numbers that I would achieve. Not precisely the most efficient course of action, but in terms of raw damage output for cost in metal, there wasn't much that actually did exceed Doxes. There were a few things, but not many.

Vanguards were one of them.

And I was certainly going to make use of those, wasn't I?

I sent my Doxes sweeping sideways, an ever-growing tide of metal heading to clear the sight for Fletcher, the entire group immediately heading off. There were a few bases to our right, pockets of defensive positions emplaced around Mass Extractors, and a much larger base further to the right still.

Where Fletcher was going to land.

I'd need to clear that base out, then sweep around and find out where the Seraphim was hiding, and wipe him off the map too. They wouldn't hesitate to use those Yolona Oss on QAI if Doctor Brackman made himself a target there.

Ivan, behind me, finished the construction of a Quantum Gateway, the red and black Cybran design immediately flickering online. I noted his energy take a sudden drop, though it wasn't enough to put him in the negatives yet. Even if it did, all I had to do is simply stop assisting the construction of Vanguards -or Doxes- until he's back to full again. Didn't really matter either way.

The gate flickered, and I detected the formation of a Quantum Tunnel before it collapsed, leaving a small explosion. An SACU stood in it's place, the IFF stating the name of one 'Cmdr Yuri' quite proudly.

The new Sub-Commander walked out of the Quantum Gate, moving to the side, out of the way, their SACU immediately beginning to glow as the Protocrafters turned on started the process of self-upgrading. Several T3 Engineers moved to assist, boosting the admittedly fast production further. Boosting the production of the Rapid Fabrication upgrade. Ha. It would finish quite quickly, providing a 50% increase in build rate, at which point they could go crazy.

Crazier.

They were already pretty crazy.

I took note of my Doxes progression, the streaming metal tide passing right. At the very tip of the group, they were encountering the first Cybran position, guarded by a trio of Cerberi, which, let me tell ya, were not doing my group any favors.

They exploded quickly, unable to take the power of the Cerberus lasers for very long. But when one died, there was another 11 to back it up, supplied continuously, endlessly by a constant stream from my Factory. Destroying 6 every second wasn't enough to get rid of them, not fast enough to stop them from closing into weapons range.

And when they did, oh boy. They fired quickly, their guns little more than bug bites firing quickly, used enmass and not dealing much damage. Still, Death Of A Thousand Cuts very much applied here.

Good.

I should have that entire area locked down pretty shortly, at which point, it's time to hunt the Seraphim.

Log 42

My Doxes continued to sweep right, continuing to be reinforced. The swarm had grown considerably, even as it had been hacked away by the Cerberi, the production eclipsing the rate of destruction. The swarm moved deeper into enemy territory, the first base already a smoking wreck.

The second base was further away, and had a greater number of defenses than the first; 5 Cerberi, and it was hidden underneath an ED1 Shield Generator. It would not, unfortunately for them, help, the shield was large and tall, many times higher than the Doxes themselves. More Doxes could shoot it any given point in time, thanks to the fact that they wouldn't be blocking the firing paths of their fellows.

Not many, and not all, but with the number of Doxes...

Well it was a foregone conclusion.

They fanned out, making space for maximum distribution of firepower, moving to get the greatest number of Doxes firing at once. They didn't wait for the formation to complete, they started firing as soon as they had the chance, the ones at the front opening fire, small trails of plasma balls lancing out to hit the shield with a gusto.

They didn't miss- how could they, against so static a target? They couldn't, not really. The plasma bursts hit repeatedly, unfailingly, tiny flashes of light as the ED1 repulsed the offense, thin red lasers speaking death against Doxes, hidden underneath the shield. Lucky them.

Unlucky, however, that it was only a ED1 Shield Generator. There was a reason the Cybrans had a multitude of upgrades for it, after all. It wasn't strong enough to hold off the assault forever, couldn't regenerate fast enough in the face of the firepower being brought to bare by the Doxes. And, most importantly, couldn't physically stop the Doxes from passing underneath.

The Doxes claimed ground by the inches, continuing to fire on the shield that was now flashing red, signalling its impending collapse. When it inevitably did, the plasma being fired at it would go underneath and hit the Shield Generate itself, much more fragile and vulnerable.

Heh.

The shield collapsed, heralding the doom of that particular base, plasma bursts going forth uninterrupted.

They collided with the thin, fragile armor structure, burning into and through it, matter washed away without so much as a by your leave. Dozens more followed, digging into the previously existing holes, and making new ones if it wasn't so viable. They must have hit something important, because the structure quickly self-detonated, reducing everything to mere shards and wrecks.

Now unhindered, they did the same thing to the Cerberi that had been hiding underneath, quickly followed by everything else at that particular outpost.

Good.

The minor, pathetic sensors on my Doxes detected an incoming shell, falling from the sky. Already moving rightwards, I didn't really consider it a concern- at least, not until it landed.

A bright, ignoble flash of light heralded the complete destruction of that entire group of doxes, a single shell landing amongst them causing a wave of doom, disintegrating that entire group.

Huh.

Less than three seconds later, another shell, far off and extremely inaccurate, but the explosion was still enough to wipe out a portion of my unit group.

Oh.

Right, the Scathis.

A third shell came down, this one directly into my line of reinforcements, who suffered much the same fate as the head of the group.

That's going to get real annoying, real quickly.

I cut off the flow of reinforcements, stopping my factory from making Doxes.

Alright, if you want to play that way, I can escalate too. Quite literally, in this case.

I pulled the other Commander Chassis away, having it construct an Orbital Launcher.

I'd only have to be careful to not hit QAI's mainframe building, which should be easy since it was in the center of everything and not exactly the most shielded unit around.

The Orbital Launcher completed quickly, and didn't waste any time in beginning the construction of the first of many Orbital Fabricators.

Assisted by the other Commander Chassis, it too completed quickly, the rocket launching upwards the very instant it completed. Good, good.

I set a queue for it, starting with an Orbital Factory and stacking up with a mass of Anchors for defensive. This planet had belonged to QAI for quite some time, so I'd like to be prepared for whatever he might have set up.

Might have. No point in taking chances in this case, is there?

The rocket hit low orbit and disgorged its cargo, falling away and detonating not soon after.

My Orbital Fabricator immediately began to construct the Orbital Factory, and would soon move onwards to the Anchors.

Or, rather, it would have, if it wasn't for a dozen T3 ASFs appearing out of fucking nowhere and blowing up my Fabricator.

Log 43

Huh.

Son of a bitch had denied me my Orbital.

Clever.

Unfortunate. But clever.

I probably should have done this sooner, but I promptly began to construct an Orbital Radar, finishing it in seconds.

And... there they were.

Fucking hundreds of contacts.

Well, that's okay.

I had my own 'fuck everything' buttons.

My anti-nuclear Ion Defenses oriented and aimed, firing into the slowly buzzing crowd up there. As modified anti-orbital defenses, they were still perfectly capable of shooting shit out of orbit. Each one independently tracked singular targets, tracing ion packets at them, repeatedly if it was necessary.

Orbit would be mine, I just had to clear it out first. Clear out the hundreds of things preventing me from taking my Orbital.

[Strategic Launch Detected]

Had it really been a minute already?

I guess so.

My Anti-Nuke Defenses promptly stopped shooting at the units in orbit, now tracking the incoming nukes. I was going to need a lot of these things if I wanted to clear out orbit quickly enough for everything to matter.

So, I turned around to start constructing more, adding 4 to the previous 5, leading to another three by three square of doom.

Sadly, I wouldn't be able to stack more anti-nuke defenses on top of the previous ones, since it would block the lines of fire of the previous ones. That'd be great though, those cannons are quite useful, getting more of them could only help.

Equally sadly, no space. Funny, that, no?

The first missile entered range, and my Anti-Nuke Ion Defenses -I really need to abbreviate that. It is way too damn long and is getting ridiculously annoying to say all the damn time. ANID from now on- promptly and violently shot it down, quickly followed by the one that came right after it.

Hah.

That done, they turned skywards once again and started shooting at the units in orbit.

There were... more than there had been before. Hmm. Had they always been there, or did QAI have a factory up there, too? That'd be troublesome. Not exactly insurmountable, but troublesome. Given sufficient time, my ANIDs would shoot each and every last one down, though the factory itself may be out of range. Still, that's what I had Avengers for.

My Orbital Launcher began fabricating another rocket, though this one was loaded with an Avenger rather than a Fabricator. Little bit of extra fighting force never hurt anyone, after all.

Or, more accurately, didn't hurt me. QAI, I hoped it would hurt a lot. Lots and lots and lots and lots.

The bastard. I was only trying to get him killed, how dare he attempt to take away my advantages.

Close sarcasm.

The Avenger, naturally, finished extremely quickly, the rocket launching upwards equally as quickly, the first of many that would hopefully eventually take orbit back. And they would, because I simply wouldn't accept otherwise.

The contacts immediately started heading towards where the the rocket would deposit the Avenger. They wouldn't quite make it in time, but they would be there in seconds after the Avenger deployed. And would thus be in positions to snipe the next Avenger that would follow it 4 seconds later.

Hmm.

Oh well, it's not like the loss of singular Avengers concerned me. I could get a literally infinite number of them if I was willing to wait long enough.

I checked the progress on my Construction Pods, noting that the both of them had about 50 seconds to go. 50 seconds to double my economy again.

That's great. When those are finished I'll have them build another 2 Construction Pods, which would, in turn, supply a 66% increase in my resource generation. After that, no space, and it would begin to get inefficient.

Geometrical progression. Love it.

But until then, I continued to build up my army of Vanguards.

Ivan and Yuri, meanwhile, were... constructing a Monkeylord, a number of Hives rapidly assisting the Monkeylord to completion.

Ah yes, Hives. Loads of fun, especially with how much mass and energy I was dumping into his resource network. And how much he himself had online, with the 8 T3 Mass Extractors and numerous amounts of Mass Fabricators. Hmm, he'd been expanding.

Fair enough, I was doing the same, after all.

Good, good.

log 44

The Monkeylord finished building long before I had made any progress towards clearing orbit. There were hundreds of ASFs up there after all, and soon after I had started shooting them, they had begun to adopt an erratic movement that was throwing off the predictive programs of my ANIDs. Not for long, and not always reliably, but it did have a noticeable impact on the speed at which I was destroying them.

There was also a constant stream of new ones coming from somewhere, and while I currently destroying them faster than they were being replenished, I don't know for how long I would be able to sustain that. If QAI managed to increase the speed, then I would eventually start getting overwhelmed.

Naturally, I'd prefer to not let that happen.

A rocket hit low orbit and detonated, releasing the Avenger hidden inside. It barely had enough time to orientate towards the incoming ASFs before they opened fire.

Barely, however, was still just enough time to fire off a shot of its own. Just one. Only a single shot didn't matter too much, the tiny blast doing only a minor amount of damage that would utterly fail to cause significant problems for the Geminis. The multitude of nanite missiles that slammed into it almost instantly after it fired its own shot meant that it simply wouldn't get the opportunity to fire the next.

In all likelihood, the Avenger that was following four seconds behind simply wouldn't have the opportunity to fire at all before the Geminis destroyed it.

There was a significantly large probability that the 3rd one would also suffer the same fate. An annoyance, certainly, but three Avengers meant approximately nothing to me.

In another context, that might have been callous. But not in this case.

Now, better question.

Did this planet have any moons?

The answer to that was yes.

A pair of them, actually, two small, airless rocks that were just so... tiny. And inconsequential.

It would certainly be a shame if something happened to them. Like, say, a certain brutally efficient self replicating mechanism of war were to get their hands on it.

Such a shame.

I cancelled the queue of the third Avenger and replaced it with a pair of Fabricators, each one with separate orders to take them to one of the moons. The rockets would serve as suitable vessels to make the trip with haste, though they were perfectly capable of making the trip under their own power. They would also be suitable outside QAI's detection radius, hopefully. It should be at least enough that their own stealth could countermand his detection.

Hopefully.

So many options open up if they do.

Like interplanetary nuclear missiles. That'd be a load of hilarity.

Always is a load of hilarity. I loved doing that in game. There's nothing quite so fun about seeing hundreds upon hundreds of nuclear missiles descending upon some poor bastards base. And if not for the slight problem of needing QAI's places intact for Doctor Brackman to work his magic, I might have actually even considered it.

As it is, Unit Cannons would help my strategic mobility by a metric fuckton. Not to mention space and resources. Both moon were also small enough that I had the final 'fuck everything' button available to me if it really became necessary.

The first Orbital Fabricator completed and launched quickly, the rocket blazing upwards. I spent a second modifying its programming to take the Orbital Fabricator directly to the first moon instead of dropping it off in orbit and detonating, which would leave the considerable chance of it being destroyed before it could go and actually do anything. I preprogrammed the second rocket with an Orbital Fabricator to do the same thing, just to the other moon instead of the first.

Gravity on both was small enough that I could use the Orbital Fabricators to build groundside factories directly instead of building Teleporters, which was convenient. I'd like to keep those particular methods of getting around under wraps for as long as possible, on the off chance that they managed to figure out how to block or otherwise mess with it. It's the reason why I also hadn't used wormholes at all, and I probably wasn't going to unless somebodies life was at stake.

Preferably not mine.

The first rocket breached orbit, and kept going, trailing far past the Geminis that attempted to follow before giving up when their speed was outmatched.

Heh.

Good, your mistake QAI.

Log 45

It'd take a while to get there, but the Orbital Fabricator was well on its way.

I could not, however, say the same for the second one. Mostly because QAI had intercepted it with his Geminis before it had managed to get away.

Oh well, one managed to get away, and that was all that really mattered. The other, I could get later.

Time, for the moment, was on my own side. I was quite content while that was true.

Ivan and Yuri began to construct a Soul Ripper, the multitude of Hives immediately beginning to assist it. I momentarily paused the construction of my Orbital Launcher, freeing up a good portion of the Metal I was generating and sending it off to those two for their purposes. Soul Rippers were a hell of a lot more effective that most of my own units, after all.

It still took quite a bit of time for the Soul Ripper to finish, even with the excess metal being sent Ivan's way. Long enough that my pair of Construction Pods finished building the pair of Omega Commanders.

The jump in Metal and Energy was highly welcomed. Oh, who the hell am I kidding, it's fucking awesome. I had them construct another pair of Construction Pods beside the current two, which would double my economy again when they finished building. Chances are that I was probably going to build another four later when those ones finished building, because I'm not the kind of person that does things by halves.

That and exponential expansion was pretty fucking awesome. Which I'm sure that I've said before, but hey.

"The extra mass you're supplying us with is quite helpful." Ivan commented.

"Isn't it just?" I stated. "I can see you're going crazy with it."

And he was; already beginning the construction of a second Soul Ripper. Good, good.

Soul Rippers were quite fun. Annoyingly hard to take down and kill, thanks to the rather high health, and exceedingly difficult to do so cost-effectively. ASFs used en masse were pretty good at it, but required numbers that rendered them both cost-inefficient and, much more importantly, time-inefficient.

Kind of surprised QAI himself wasn't making use of them, actually. Who knows what the hell that computer is doing. What he is doing is being suspiciously silent.

[Strategic Launch Detected]

Right on cue. Of course.

My ANIDs turned away from orbit and once more aimed at the.. incoming.. nukes...

Holy shit that is a lot of nukes.

Dozens of contacts appeared around us, my T2 Radar marking each and every single one down. Many were the same, others had signatures that seemed to have more in common with the Seraphim nuclear missiles than they did for the Cybran signatures, and a few- 5 to be exact, were the quite distinctive signature of the Yolona Oss.

Alright, he is not holding back.

I immediately started to build up on ANIDS, using all four of my current Commanders to do so.

The second thing I did was promptly disable the range limitation on my ANIDS, because god damn I didn't want to let any of those missiles anywhere near me. It would be extremely unpleasant, to say the least.

Wow, they're still coming. I quickly counted, tagging each one with a small marker to keep track of it, and I ended up counting towards over 50, with even more coming.

Yeah, great.

Shit.

Way too many nukes. Way way way too many nukes.

My ANIDS aimed, orientated and started firing. The original core group of 9 all aimed at different ones, spitting blasts at each. A few seconds later, 4 new, very recently constructed ANIDs also joined the fire, targeting the closest and most dangerous. I quickly figured out that each ANID required 2 shots to reliably destroy a nuke, though in some cases they managed to destroy them with only one.

Destroying the more critical components, hopefully.

They're still coming. The count grew and grew and grew, up and up and up, even as my ANIDs continued to shoot them down, continued to fire away again and again and again.

8 seconds passed and 4 more ANIDS began to engage, although the wave of nukes kept coming uncomfortably closer, which was exceedingly worrying.

I diverted a small amount of power towards the internal Wormhole generators, ready to rip open a portal if it ever became necessary. I could open 8 simultaneously if it became necessary, and we could always jump to any other part of the planet if we needed to.

I would hope that it didn't come to that.

Alright, I've got good news, and I've got bad news.

The good news is, new update:

Log 46

Another 4 ANIDs came online, bringing the total count up to 21.

It didn't seem to matter too much. The wave of nukes continued to come, more appearing continuously, over and over and over. I'd counted, by this point, a grand total of 121, though that wasn't to say that more weren't still on their way.

It was, to say the least, uncomfortable. QAI couldn't have possibly built all this up after we landed, either, there simply hadn't been enough time. The alternative, that he had built all of this up after we landed was simply to worrying too think about; mostly because that implied an industrial capacity that far and away exceeded anything we had on hand, enough to simply drown us in an unending tide of metal.

Still haven't seen the use of any Experimentals -other than the Scathis and the Yolona Oss, obviously-, which was somewhat worrying. Had the Seven Hand Node acquired the designs for the other faction's experimentals yet, or not? It'd be great if he hadn't managed to do so, but there was a considerably large possibility that they had managed.

Guess I'll be finding out sooner or later, won't I?

One hundred and thirty seven. I don't even want to think about how much Mass and Energy it took to build all of these. It's insane.

4 more ANIDs came online. The nukes continued to creep closer. They were fairly fast, which most certainly wasn't doing me any favors. None at all, not a one.

"Creator-Mother. Current situation demands superior anti-nuclear missile capabilities."

My perception of time sped up as I answered him. "Indeed. I don't suppose you have a solution."

"I have been designing."

"I noticed."

"I have developed this."

Hoh?

I accessed his design, immediately noting the similarities between it and the upgraded Obelisk of Light. Fitting, because it was a larger version. The internal mechanisms had been changed, much of the materials used replaced with Seraphim derived materials, with higher heat and energy tolerances. The laser arrays had been overpowered, beyond the material's ability to handle, which had been offset with the use of Quantum Locking, enabling a greater degree of resilience... Quite clever actually, without having to worry as much about the material's limits, the laser could be overpowered dramatically.

The issue of atmospheric bleed was still present, but given the strength of the resultant laser... well, not quite as much of a problem. It'd still be powerful enough to outright destroy a nuke at a significant range. Not quite as far as the ANID, but it would be able to protect a significantly large area.

A massive, pulsed laser array, capable of omni-directional firing at the drop of a hat, with enough raw power to destroy even the heavily armored nuclear missiles of the Supreme Commander factions with ease. The fire rate on them was pretty good, too, at one shot every 1.5 seconds. With the Quantum Locking in place, they'd even have the added advantage of being difficult to destroy, even if it was only there for the purposes of actually enabling it to operate without melting into a pile of goo.

"You've done some very nice work here, Little1."

"Thank you, Creator-Mother." There's a slight inflection on his voice, a note of happiness. I smiled at it.

Time sped up again as I gave a minute shift to my construction orders, queuing Little1's new defenses up on the outer edges of my own base, where they would be much more effective at their task.

Another 4 ANIDs came online, and all four of my Commander bodies started on the first of many Anti-Nuclear Laser Defenses -henceforth christened the ANLDs-. That should be helpful in, you know, staying alive.

The wave of nukes was still crawling closer, but I was now significantly more confident in my defense.

One hundred and fifty nine.

And the bad news is; I'm going to be away for a significant amount of time. Several days, actually, in which I won't be able to post new chapters.

Sorry guys.

Don't worry, when I get back, you'll get multiple ones at once.

So... That took a lot longer than I was expecting.

Log 47

The first group of 4 ANLDs came online quickly, and started firing equally as quickly.

Thin beams of red light lanced out one after the other, each one heralding the destruction of a nuke. The 1.5 second firing rate quickly made itself known and useful, unerringly, unfailingly obliterating the nukes that were meant to obliterate us.

Good, good.

I checked the progress on my Orbital Fabricator, noting that it was halfway to its target. Doubly good.

I then proceeded to check the seemingly endless waves of nukes, noting with not-inconsiderable annoyance that it was still inching closer. Even despite the frankly obscene amount of anti-nuclear defenses that I had.

Which just ticked up by another four. Which also added to the anti-nuke efforts.

I'd need... 17 more ANLDs to match up to the pace of nukes that were coming; 17 more to equalise how fast I could destroy them and how fast QAI could send them.

I'd set up 24 more, just in case QAI decided to vary his tactics a little more.

Well, 20 more now.

Could I make it?

...

Yes, though just barely. In the time it would take for me to set those up, the outer layers of my Firestorm Barriers would be within range of a nuclear detonation, even from a normal missile and not one of the Yolona Oss missiles. Those particular missiles would be far more troublesome.

But seriously though, when the hell was he going to run out of missiles? We have hit the point of well over 180, and nukes weren't cheap. Either he had an absurd amount in storage, in which case his economy is taking a hit right now, or he was building them and then launching them with any breaks.

The second one was much more worrying, on account of implying a much larger economy. As well as either more Launchers, or faster construction speed.

The first is the most likely, but I'm going to assume the second for now. Hope for the best, assume the worst and all that crap.

The air hissed as my Construction Pods opened, the four Commanders inside immediately stepping out. My economy doubled once more, and I didn't waste any time in using them to construct another 4 Construction Pods.

God damn that was just one of the best things ever. Much economy, very nice. I immediately put it to good use, adding another 16 ANLDs to my already excessive defenses. Ivan and Yuri also put it to good use, the Frankly obscene number of Hives that they had immediately beginning production on a Scathis.

Heh.

That'll be good revenge. QAI hits me, so Ivan and Yuri hit QAI. It certainly paid to have friends.

I left those 4 Commanders clumped together to the side, just leaving the spare economy open for Ivan and Yuri. And myself, but I was only barely actually using it in comparison to them. Experimentals were costly, after all. Useful, but costly.

Still, the Scathis completed quite quickly, helped along by the Hives, and by the resources I was generating. Of course, being a Scathis, 'quickly' in this case meant about 97 seconds.

Still wasn't sure of the exact ratio of between Metal and Mass, so to say, but it was a fairly considerable amount in any case.

The Scathis wasted little time in starting to fire, each of the six massive barrels longer than I was tall extending slowly with deliberate care, angling slightly towards the east, a very large flight path that would take the shells... approximately towards the closest base to the right.

It fired, a burst of fire appearing as the shell shot out of the barrel at speeds that set the air ablaze from sheer friction. The barrel spun, rotating the next barrel into place, the healthy red glow of the previous barrel already beginning to fade as it extended again.

The gun fired again, blazing another trail through the air, generating another shockwave that kicked up dust along the ground, dozens of meters below.

Heh. There was something quite attractive about a really big gun that made me want one of my own. I wonder why.

The barrel finished cycling, and a third shot soon left the earth shaking.

Log 48

The first shot drifted wildly off mark, only the outermost edges of the force it generated washing against the shields of the third firebase around the area.

Not surprising. The Scathis was an area bombardment weapon, not quite an artillery piece. Artillery, after all, implied that it could hit its target with any degree of accuracy.

It couldn't.

It really couldn't.

The second shot, however, was far more lucky, landing almost directly on top the firebase, a bright flashing light immediately depleting the shields by a considerable amount. The third shot was almost as luck, only falling short by a few dozen meters, well within the blast radius. Incidentally, also enough force to knock the ED2 Barrier offline.

Of course, the fourth and fifth shots may as well have not existed for all the damage they did to the base, which was a nice flat solid zero. The sixth shot, on the other hand landed almost directly in the lines of several Cerberus turrets, obliterating them, and the nearby shield generator. Three more shots was what it took to finish off the base completely, by which point, I'd reached the necessary time for my economy to double again.

Those shells have a considerably high travel time on them.

Still, 16 commanders.

And now... 16 Construction Pods.

I will seriously begin to struggle to use this economy soon. Even Ivan and Yuri's Hives can only use so much at a time. Of course, we were now at the point where he could construct a Scathis in slightly under a minute if the current rate of the second Scathis was any indication. Very nice.

Time was, for the moment, on our side. For the moment. I'd still rather that we ended this as soon as we possibly could, to give QAI as little time as possible to come up with something... unfortunate.

Soon enough, the second Scathis joined the first, by which time it had already destroyed all but one of the bases to the east. The final base, in fact, was the only one that had been heavily defended enough to withstand the Scathis firing upon it.

Not because of shields or any sort of suitable defensive technologies, but because he seemed to have resorted to physically blocking the shells with T3 Spy Planes. Which sounded stupid, but since the base was completely untouched after the better part of 20 seconds of continuous Scathis bombardment, it clearly wasn't. If he was the one bombarding me I might have tried the same thing. Or maybe I would have used the ANLDs as makeshift anti-artillery shells as well.

Don't know. Options to consider should they ever become relevant. Which will hopefully be not soon, and preferably never. Still, I wasn't nearly that much of an optimist to assume that would be the case. Given a sufficient amount of time, it'll happen eventually.

Just not now.

And wow did I go off a tangent.

Now, back to things that were actually important instead of my own almost completely pointless musings, Scathis.

More specifically, the second one. Which was starting to open fire already, having targeted the base while I hadn't been paying attention. Coolio.

Wouldn't exactly be the most useful thing at the moment, considering QAI had approximately one metric fuckton of T3 Air Factories and the economy to support them indefinitely going at maximum production of Spy Planes, but whatever. Every plane we bled from QAI was another small victory, and we would get through eventually. Even if we had to build more and more Scathis. Scathises. Scathi. I have no fucking idea how to plural that.

Or we could skip the pluraling entirely and Ivan and Yuri can start construction on a Soul Ripper. That works too.

Especially since it was online and in the air in less than 10 seconds. A hell of a lot faster than getting Moar Scathis. Scathises. Scathi. God damn it.

They immediately began to construct another Soul Ripper, too, since the only thing more cost-effective than a single Soul Ripper was a bunch of Soul Rippers in a group. Nice to see that you have that covered, Ivan.

[Quantum Tunnelling Event Detected]

Wait, what?

Log 49

Space split open in 5 flashes of light, 5 Seraphim support Armored Command Units appearing slightly above the ground and falling down with a none-too-gentle boom.

Ivan, Yuri and I were all reacting long before they hit the ground. I'd abandoned my construction processes, turning all 16 of my bodies around to face the threat in what short amount of time I had to react to them. It kind of sucked having a body that could keep up to your thoughts, though the extra time given to think and plan was a thing of beauty.

I was kind of grateful. The fact that they'd teleported in meant that they weren't equipped with Overcharge. That would make a significantly bigger mess of things.

I didn't wait until everything had been fully turned around to open fire. I'd immediately started firing missiles, quickly targeted at a single sACU. There was no real reason I couldn't ad hoc them for use on ground units, after all, even though they were designed for much faster air units.

The second thing I did was start moving my group of Vanguards upwards, bringing them into range of the sACUs. Vanguards were nasty, and most definitely not to be trifled with. Those sACUs were expensive and one of the few things in the Seraphim's armies that weren't expendable, so I was going to show QAI and the Seraphim exactly why they shouldn't attempt this kind of thing again.

The sACUs hit the ground and immediately opened fire... on my Shield Pillars.

Oh, you smart son of a bitch.

I immediately took direct control of a few ANLDs, temporarily directly overriding their programming and forcing them to target the sACUs, though I only took 4 for now. I'm so glad that they actually could do that. Omni-directional laser beams for the win.

The air hummed as energy built up and promptly lanced out in the form of 4 bright, red beams, all of which targeted a single sACU. The same sACU, in fact, that all 16 of my bodies were beginning to attack; many, many lasers striking at it alongside even more plasma bursts.

And, since they were within the ranges of my bodies, I also unleashed my own Uber Cannons.

16 brightly glowing blue balls of doom flew, each one targeted at the same sACU that my ANLDs had attacked.

The shield flickered dangerously on the sACU as the Uber Cannon bursts hit it, coming very close to collapse in a very short interval. They did collapse a second later when the Uber Cannons fired again, alongside the continuous stream of lasers and plasma bursts, burning into and through the armor of the sACU. It began to regenerate quickly, a faint golden light rapidly closing the holes that been left, and repairing the damage that had been caused through the heat.

Wouldn't help. Give me another few seconds, and I'd destroy it entirely.

Unbidden, all 5 sACUs began to glow with a whitened light, charging up their Tele- no. Not the Teleporters, their Recall Beacons. Son of a bitch.

1 second passed, and my Uber Cannons fired again. Without the shield to protect it, the sACU getting torn apart by the sheer amount of firepower directed at it. It didn't detonate, however, not quite dead yet. That's okay, because less than a tenth of a second later, my ANLDs fired again, glowing red lasers striking the damaged armor, meleting what little armor remained and tearing a hole directly through. It promptly detonated, viciously and violently, going off like a miniature nuclear weapon. Standing inside the range of that blast, the barriers of the other 4 sACUs flickered as they absorbed the force.

In the brief second I had before the sACU detonated, and the scan shields had been disabled, I noted an interesting anomaly.

There was no organic pilot inside.

So, the reason I only have three is because I hadn't expected to take more than 2 days.

As you can tell, slightly over 2 weeks has proven that very, very wrong.

So many delays and so many problems, and I hadn't even brought my laptop with me so I could continue working on it. Silly me, right?

Log 50

A third second passed, by which time I'd already started to attack the second sACU, striking at it with plasma bursts, lasers and Uber Cannons. I didn't hold back, burning into the sACU as much as I could in the short amount of time I had remaining before they recalled. It was only a few seconds, but when you were tossing around the kind of firepower that we were, a few seconds was all that was needed to ruin somebody's day.

A fourth second, and the second barrage of Uber Cannons were on the way with the shield broken and unable to protect it, the Uber Cannon Blasts had the time of their short and entirely not real lives. The armor cracked and burnt, breaking apart as the powerful energies tore them to shreds. Surprisingly, it didn't immediately detonate, even though damage was just about catastrophic.

An energy surge from Ivan's ACU, followed quickly by the glowing bolt of an Overcharge Cannon promptly and violently solved that problem, instantaneously coring the sACU and forcing it to detonate, bright white light causing the other three sACU's shields to flicker.

Though, perhaps it was not the explosion itself, but the fact that all three of them promptly vanished before I had time to even fire the next set of Uber Cannon blasts. Oh well, I'd bled them of two sACUs, and they'd accomplished basically nothing in the attack. They'd effectively accomplished less than nothing, actually, since I was now aware that they could teleport through my barriers and strike at me from within.

Something which warranted a re-thinking of my defenses. I'd need to protect my Shield Pillars from destruction, and one of the best ways to do that was, obviously, to get more barriers defending them. Clearly. Preferably with more gun, as well.

Idly, I directed several of my Vanguards to surround the entire set of Shield Pillars that I had, right before I also started to construct anotherlayer of Shield Pillars on top of the previous two layers. Between those 9, I wouldn't give odds of anything short of a nuke breaking through. And well, ANLDs and ANIDs. Nukes could go fuck themselves.

And if it wasn't a Nuke, then the Firestorm barriers and Vanguards should be able to deal with it.

Seriously, Uber Cannons weren't a joke. Especially the more powerful variant on the Vanguard.

Didn't have very long left until my Orbital Fabricator finally reached the moon it was heading to. Mere minutes, in fact. Just enough time to fit in another 2 iterations of Omega Commander construction. Given 5 or so minutes, that Fabricator would have set up the necessary infrastructure for the Unit Cannons, at which point... Well, tactical advantages is a pretty good summary of what it offers.

The ability to just drop a continuous stream of Vanguards wherever the fuck I wanted is highly appealing. Approximately as appealing as interplanetary nuclear missiles, actually. And if it weren't for the fact that I needed QAI's mainframe intact, I'd be doing just that.

The Seraphim, however, I had no such compunctions with. I didn't need him alive, in fact, it would be quite preferable that he was as dead as possible. Deader than dead, actually. Reduced to a cloud of irradiated particles dead. Or worse.

The Seraphim absolutely could not be allowed to interfere and fuck things up. Especially since the Seraphim won't hesitate to do just thatshould he see it as necessary. And, being honest, Brackman's missile things are sufficiently weird, and his Megalith sufficiently big enough that it basically warrants nuking all on its own. If it's at QAI's mainframe, and doing said weird missile thing, that's basically just painting a very big target on his head.

So yeah, Seraphim had to go. Preferably with Vanguards, but otherwise... Well, waves of nuclear fire works just as well.

Of course, no matter what method I use to obliterate the Seraphim, I was still going to be waiting a little while. Granted, both the Unit Cannon and Nuclear Missiles had higher velocities than the Orbital Fabricator's rocket, but there was still a good 130,000 kilometers between the moon and this planet. It's not something that they can cross an instant.

Meh. I'm content to wait a few minutes.


	6. Chapter 6: Logs 51-60

Log 51

While I was waiting, Ivan constructed a T3 Air Factory and started building Spy Planes from them. Rather nice of him, since neither of us had Intel on QAI -and for that matter, the Seraphim's- base, beyond the most basic 'where'.

And not even that, in the case of the Seraphim.

So, I was quite supportive of Spy Planes.

One flew off the air pad, shortly followed by another, and another, and another; all rapidly constructed with the judicious use of Hives, all immediately flying off in a different direction, one up to QAI's base, one heading towards the east, one to the west, and one down to the south. The one to the west promptly and quickly revealed nothing but water, as I had expected, though Ivan sent it off to scour the ocean more thoroughly.

The one to the east revealed equally little before it was shot down a passing Air Superiority Fighter, which left for parts unknown. Probably to the east, which had hosted the base it was guarding.

The one to the south quickly revealed Seraphim units, which caused Ivan to direct the plane deeper into the territory. It only got as far as the outskirts of the Seraphim's base before it was shot down, but that was still enough to tell me that the Seraphim was in roughly the same position as Hex5 had been in the game. It wasn't a bad position by any means, it would take quite a bit to flush the Seraphim out of the place.

The one to the north, however, very quickly revealed a portion of QAI's base, getting actual visuals of.. his... base...

That is a lot of Monkeylords. And Soul Rippers. And Fatboys. And Galactic Colossi. And Czars.

Is that an Atlantis? That's a fucking Atlantis!

Oh god, I can't actually see the ground underneath all the Experimentals!

"The Seven Hand Node was quite effective in attaining the schematics to your weapon systems." The AI taunted.

We're almost 4 days early, and he already had the other faction's weapons.

Shit.

That's going to make things a bit more complicated.

My defenses are not nearly excessive enough to deal with that. Not indefinitely, anyway. Not even for a particularly long period of time, though they would buy us more than enough time to teleport/recall out of here.

But so long as he didn't attack within the next four minutes, we'd be good. That's all the time I'd need to build a Teleporter here, and for my Orbital Fabricator to build up on the moon.

All the time I needed. I now had 64 bodies, producing appropriate amounts of Mass and Energy to fuel Ivan's continuous rush of experimentals.

On the flipside, I've basically used up all the space I had allocated for my expansion. Not for long, though.

You know, now that my Fabricator was at the moon. With all that free space, and nothing QAI had around to deal with it.

Hah.

Trump cards, love em.

Now I just had to survive long enough to use it.

Of course, the instantaneous evacuation option in the form of a receiving Teleporter came first.

And an Air Factory second.

Or I can just cut out the middle man entirely and skip straight to Construction Pods, which would afford a larger economy, and a greater build power with which to use it. Instead of a net drain, it'd be a net growth.

Because what I clearly needed was more economy.

Which was actually true- I was going to need it if I wanted to do any appreciable damage to QAI and the Seraphim. With the amount of Experimentals the former had around, and the multitude of Yolona Oss of the second, I'd be needing vast numbers.

Vast numbers that would have to come in the form of Vanguards, which would in turn mean T2 Vehicle Factories and a Unit Cannon. If I had two Commanders assist the factory, I could probably construct them as fast as I could launch them, but even that relatively quick stream could be defeated quite easily. I was going to need a lot of Unit Cannons and T2 Vehicle Factories.

And even more Commanders.

It was, however, a ratio I could achieve pretty easily.

Thankfully.

Log 52

My Orbital Fabricator slowly settled down towards the moon, coming closer to the surface. Above, the rocket self destructed, leaving nothing left for analysis or reclamation. Not that it would matter too much, so long as I was the one who won this battle.

Not that it mattered at all actually, given that it was in space and wasn't going to be recovered by anything less than a very dedicated fleet.

And even then...

Meh.

The Orbital Fabricator reached a height approximately twice as high as an Air Fabricator would hover, and quickly began to construct the first Teleporter, shortly followed by the first of many Construction Pods. Many, many, many Construction Pods. I'll cover the entire god damned moon with them.

Not literally, although that was sounding like a fun idea. Not necessarily a good one, considering the chain reaction potential, but fun.

Terrible, terrible chain reaction potential, but most definitely fun.

Devastate the entire surface of the moon chain reaction potential, but, to be honest, that just made it sound more fun.

The Orbital Fabricator finished with the first Construction Pod, and quickly started on the second. I, meanwhile, made use of the last of the space I had allocated to myself, and promptly constructed a Teleporter there.

I'd eat my entirely non-existent hat if QAI couldn't figure out the purpose of the Teleporters, given their purpose was exceedingly obvious with their appearance, but either way, I didn't immediately connect and power them. I'd save that for later, when QAI pulled out whatever trick he had up his non-existent sleeves.

And he had it- I knew he had it, I was just waiting to figure out what it was. Might not be a lunar base as I hadn't demonstrated myself to be capable of interplanetary warfare before arriving here, but QAI was pretty intelligent. One of the few things that exceeded its processing power, however, was its arrogance. Arrogance that was admittedly well founded, especially in this situation with the excessive amount of nuclear weapons, and the even more excessive amount of Experimentals.

And the teleporting sACUs. Those things could go fuck themselves. Seriously, making use of the one flaw that i have in my defense- my inability to block teleports. Or, more accurately, my inability to block Quantum Tunneling derived teleportation. The Scrin did have a method for blocking their version of teleporting, but their method of teleportation and Supreme Commander's method of teleportation were about as far apart as one could reasonably go with Teleportation, and I had sincere doubts that the two would interact in any way beneficial to me.

And, unfortunately, the knowledge I'd picked up from Zaum and his ACU was equally useless. The Seraphim had been experimenting with methods of blocking Quantum Tunnelling, but hadn't achieved a total success on that end. Their methods relied on increasing the energy costs involved, which worked fairly well on the strategic scale, but failed almost entirely on the tactical scale; or involved generating Quantum Wakes, which affected them, as well. And also didn't totally shut down Quantum Tunneling of every kind and method. Certainly didn't block resource transmission, anyway.

Also had the minor side effect of sending up Big Red Flags to the Seraphim armies. And as far as that went, it tended towards being a Very Bad Idea. A Completely Terrible Idea. In almost every single possible way. Mostly because it tended to bring that very same army right down on that idiot's head, very, very quickly. And with the Quantum Realm being a tad bit more malleable than this one, that would become very bad indeed.

My Orbital Fabricator finished on the second Construction Pod, and quickly moved onto the third.

I hadn't seen QAI pull out that jammer thing, either. Potentially for a very good reason; He didn't know how my methods of FTL worked. If it inconvenienced him, but it didn't inconvenience me, then he'd spend a considerable amount of time operating off a disadvantage. There was also the possibility that he hadn't actually finished designing the thing yet. A low possibility, since QAI was operating on what was more or less a several kilometer wide chunk of computronium. Quantum computronium.

Eh, whatever.

[Quantum Tunnelling Event Detected]

Oh, fuck you!

Log 53

On the moon, a glowing ball of doom -in truth, a roughly spherical patch of light generated by a quantum disturbance- appeared. The fact that it was a quantum disturbance instead of an instantaneous transit held bad news all of its own; it wasn't teleporting, it was being transmitted by a Quantum Gateway. The fact that QAI had been able to Q-Gate something to the moon implied a massive energy economy, more or less confirming that QAI had the ridiculous resource advantage over us, which also implied a significantly large production capacity.

At around about the same time, my Teleporters flickered online and a Commander ducked through.

There was no way in hell that I was going to let QAI block me off from this moon. I had waited way too long for the Fabricator to get there, and that moon would be mine.

All mine.

Mine and mine and mine. Not yours!

The Omega Commander stepped out of the Teleporter in the same moment as the Quantum disturbance exploded, releasing a wave of energy that kicked up a large amount of dust on the moon, fine particles spewing in every other direction. It did absolutely nothing at all to hide the Seraphim sACU that appeared from my sensors, especially not the ones on the Omega Commander. Didn't have a hope in hell of blocking them.

I somehow doubted that either QAI or the Seraphim cared.

The second Omega Commander started coming through, this one also leaning forwards to fit within the height limitation of my Teleporters. At some point, I really would have to fix that, just as soon as I understood how to do so without completely ruining the low energy costs in the process. And, for that matter, attained a higher understanding of the sciences behind it. The sciences behind it were hellaciously complex, and it was kind of a wonder that they were as cheap as they were. Actually, the same applied for a considerable portion of my technology, though perhaps barring the 'cheap' part.

It's also made worse by the fact that the English language kind of lacked the words necessary to explain many of the concepts and sciences behind everything. I understand how it works on account of having the Progenitor's language stuck in my head, I just can't explain it at all. Which is a really big dampener on things.

A flash of light extended from the cloud of particulate dust, the glowing round of an Overcharged shot passing over the 'head' of the Omega Commander. I followed its progress, tracing it as it crossed the distance from the sACU to its target. I was well aware of the fact that the Seraphim's Overcharge weaponry didn't simply miss, after all.

The Teleporter, I realised. The Teleporter that the second Omega Commander was only halfway through.

I instantly disabled the self destruct sequences on the Omega Commander, knowing full well exactly how destructive the resultant explosion would be if I didn't, and it wasn't something that I particularly wanted since a fair amount of it would be going through the Teleporter and hitting the rest of my bodies. Wouldn't quite be enough to destroy them, but it would fuck up a considerably large portion of my things. As well as Ivan's things. And the other things on the moon.

I also didn't particularly feel like letting QAI know exactly how destructive they were when they were destroyed. Mostly because that might give him ideas.

The Overcharged bolt slammed into the top-most part of the Teleporter ring, all but instantly obliterating that part, and forcing the portal to close as the mechanism maintaining it was destroyed utterly. On the ground, the legs fell forward mid-step as the top half of the Omega Commander was suddenly, violently disconnected. Without the self-destruction sequences going off, it started the slow process of self repairing; the few internal fabricators and Nano Repair Systems I'd stuffed within already going at full potential. The top half also collapsed to the ground, on account of suddenly missing basically the entirety of its lower half and a fair portion of the 'stomach' area. It too began self repairing, though at a faster rate thanks to the more numerous repair systems hidden inside the torso, as well as the direct supply of Metal and Energy thanks to the Resource Cores. Still it was missing a significant portion of it's body, and was basically immobile, though both its weapons and construction capabilities were unhindered.

And to demonstrate that, I had it raise an arm and fire of an Uber Cannon shot at that son of a motherfucking bitch- sACU that had destroyed my Teleporter.

QAI? Yeah, I'm going to murder you.

Log 54

The Uber Cannon shot violently impacted with sACU, its shield flashing as it absorbed the shot. It didn't respond in kind, instead starting to build up a T1 Point Defense.

Yeah, no. We will be having none of that.

The other Commander immediately fired its Uber Cannon, blowing the incomplete Point Defense straight to hell, before contributing the rest of its firepower towards dealing with the sACU.

Above, my Orbital Fabricator moved further back, outside of the immediate effective range of the sACU's Light Chronoton Cannon if it decided to start shoot at my Orbital Fabricator, before immediately beginning to construct another Teleporter.

Down on the planet, I had several Commander ready to walk through, only inches away from where the Portal itself would eventually form, in turn only seconds away.

And, by seconds, I meant that my Commanders had enough time in between to fire their Uber Cannons a good 5 times, during which the sACU hadn't even returned fire with the Overcharge Cannon once.

I knew why; the Overcharge Cannon required a considerable amount of energy to fire- 5000 in game terms. Also in game terms, the sACU produced 500 energy a second, and consumed 300 energy per second to maintain the shield if it had it. Which it did, in this case. Finally, the sACU had a grand total of 5000 energy storage, just enough to fire the cannon once and then force a full recharge. Mathematically, it could fire exactly once every 25 seconds, if left to its own devices.

The Overcharge Cannon itself, however, could fire a grand total of once every three seconds; far and away surpassing the energy generation of the sACU by its lonesome. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't have been a problem, as the sACU would be receiving power from a base. It required nothing less than a full fledged T3 economy to bring sACUs in, and a full fledged T3 economy was more than enough to power an Uber cannon indefinitely.

Under normal circumstances.

Unfortunately for the sACU, this particular situation did not fall under normal circumstances. The sACU was a grand total of 130,000 kilometers away from the base that would normally be supporting it.

Far and away outside the range for their energy transmission. The sACU was alone. Stuck on the moon with one fully operational Omega Commander -a much more powerful combat unit-, and the regenerating half of another Omega Commander.

The sACU was not in a good way. Not at all. It still had the option of recalling and escaping destruction, but this moon was mine. Whether QAI wanted it or not.

More Commanders walked out of the newly established Teleporter, one at first, but quickly followed by another, then another and another.

14 in total, to be exact, leaving me with 48 still on the ground. Not including the regenerating severed legs, anyway.

Which left 15.6 up there.

A flatly ridiculous amount of firepower, and an even more ridiculous amount of build power, when not limited by things attempting to kill them on every other side.

The sACU started the process of recalling, and a quick calculation noted that I wouldn't be able to get to it in time- the move to build outside of effective weapons range backfiring on me in this case.

Well, unfortunate, but not really a problem. All it meant that I didn't get a chance to destroy an annoyance, which was fine, since the Seraphim didn't have an unlimited number of them.

I hoped QAI didn't have an unlimited number of them. Yeah, sure, they were unmanned, but Command Units were not easy to produce.

Still, there was nothing really as effective, mass for mass as a Seraphim sACU equipped with an Overcharge Cannon.

[Quantum Tunneling Event Detected]

A ball of light appeared in my base on the ground, and another in my base on the moon.

Really?

The sACUs didn't work, so what the hell are you sending this time?

The Quantum Disturbances resolved, and I beheld the sight of a pair of Yolona Oss missiles.

Oh.

Huh.

Threadmarks: Log 55

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Drich

Drich

Log 55

My perception sped up as I stopped and considered.

Right: a pair of a super-nukes in the middle of my bases. Undoubtedly going to explode, very, very soon. Actually, currently in the process of exploding, if the high-energy interactions and rising quantum surging my sensors were picking up was any indication.

Which, you know, it was.

Man, I am so fucking glad I saved my wormhole generation technology up to this very moment.

I considered generating a wormhole to transport it away, but I decided against it. I had no idea how the formation of the wormhole would interact with the -still exploding- missile. If it wasn't in the process of exploding, I would have done it in a heartbeat, but as it is, the interaction could be rather bad. It would also have the slight problem letting the backlash of said explosion through, some of the force would make it back and that would be problematic.

So, can't -won't, rather- transport the missile itself, both for fears of the possible interactions, and the fact that some of the force would be coming back through.

The solution, therefore, was obvious.

On both planet and moon, a dozen Commanders each simultaneously activated their Wormhole generators, 24 Wormholes each forming around the pair of supernukes, a perfect container for the force that they would soon release.

On the moon, another 24 Wormholes appeared, dimensionally 'oriented' upwards, where the explosion from the supernuke would be harmlessly directed into space. Mostly, that was because I lacked a target in range to direct the force at, and as such I had to uselessly waste it.

On the planet, however, that was a different story. I had plenty of targets. All around, in every direction. One of which I needed intact, unfortunately, so I couldn't just redirect all that force onto him.

The other, however.

Well, it's not like I needed the Seraphim intact. Or even alive at all.

Now, if I actually knew where he was, that'd be great. I didn't, sadly, but that didn't preclude me from hitting his base.

I picked a spot at random -around the point of where a few Mass Deposits had been in the game-, and that's where 24 Wormholes opened up, ready to unleash the hell that was the full force of the exploding Seraphim super-nuke, directly onto the Seraphims own base.

Jackass.

This is what you get for trying to murder me.

But don't worry QAI, you're next.

Just as soon as I deal with the Seraphim and free my flanks, the Seraphim sACUs, and the Yolona Oss launchers. Which dealing with the Seraphim will do, actually, since if his ACU gets destroyed, so does everything else.

Huh.

I really do have to find the Seraphim sACU, come to think of it. If only because now that I'd revealed the Wormholes, there was no longer any reason to not teleport-gank him.

Thanks for that idea, by the way. I'll be sure to use it as explosively and effective as possible.

Jackass.

I watched as the force from the explosion was captured by the Wormholes, instantaneously transmitted to the receiving Wormholes of the pairs, all of which were dimensionally oriented downwards.

It actually looked really fucking awesome, 24 tears in the sky dispensing an immense amount of energy, bright white light pouring out alongside immense, raw force.

I couldn't see the Seraphim's base, or his units -all hidden under the veneer of stealth- but that didn't preclude me from seeing the wormholes themselves as they dispensed the full power of the Yolona Oss into an only slightly more compacted area than the missile itself would have covered.

I saw watched as the shockwave shifted, slightly; changed as it encountered shields and was warped slightly before the Shields collapsed, unable to take the strain.

Not nearly able to take the stain.

I watched as it hit the ground, and burnt everything to ash, dirt and rock being reduced to naught but fine particles, wiped away without so much as a 'by your leave'.

It was amazing.

What I was not expecting, however, was another explosion adding to it.

Specifically, the signature expanding five pointed star explosion of a detonating Seraphim ACU.

For a second, i just watched it, the 5 quantum ripples expanding and then converging upwards.

Then, without any more waiting, the rest of the Seraphim's base began detonating too. I could tell, as all their self destructs activated, and, more importantly, their stealth shut off, enabling me to see their wrecks crashing into the ground.

...

Did I just kill accidentally the Seraphim Commander?

Man, Heartless is eating my muse.

Log 56

For a moment, I just stood and stared.

How could I not, I mean, I totally just accidentally'd the Seraphim Commander.

I'd been trying to kill him, sure, but I just did it by complete accident.

I'd been expecting to storm his base with immense amounts of units, to bury him underneath tides of metal and plasma. Well, Uber Cannons more likely, but the point stands!

Well, I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

32 Wormholes promptly opened in front of 32 Commanders, which immediately travelled through. All 32 went to different spots, spread out over the area where the Seraphim's base had been. Had been. As I expected, there was nothing left alive over here now.

It's mine now.

My Commanders all started building up Shield Pillars, immense amounts, flicking online one after the other, sequestering the entire area off for my purposes.

Space has suddenly stopped being a problem. Which was a wonderful thing.

Another 8 Wormholes opened and deposited another 8 Commanders, though these ones didn't immediately contribute to the defense.

Rather, they were going to contribute to the future offence, in the form of multiple Nuke Launchers.

"HQ? Yeah, we have a position for Fletcher now." I sent the transmission to Coalition Command, alongside a set of coordinates- where the Seraphim's own base had been, surrounded by the wrecks of lots and lots of Seraphim.

Lots and lots and lots of Seraphim units.

"Copy that, sending Fletcher now."

[Quantum Tunneling Event Detected]

A ball of light appeared at the coordinates I had sent, soon resolving into an explosion that destroyed the fair bit of the surrounding wrecks. It didn't matter too much; supported by my Omega Commanders, Fletcher would have all the Mass and Energy he would need. All the Mass and Energy he could use, actually, for a considerably long time.

Even if he started stacking up the Kennels.

Actually, he'd have to do just that to use all of it.

Fortunately for him, Kennels were just a tad bit more convenient than the Cybran Hives.

Fletcher hit the ground and immediately began constructing a Land Factory, which was quickly followed by Kennels once he realised how much resources he had on hand.

Lots and lots and lots and lots.

"Fletcher, right?" I asked. As if I needed confirmation on who he is, I remembered him perfectly well. "If you can get as many big and powerful guns as you can, that would be much appreciated. We're going to need 'em soon."

Fletcher didn't get a chance to reply, because QAI picked that moment to speak up.

"You have no chance of defeating the Seraphim."

"Riiiiight." I transmitted back, making sure to inject juuust the right amount of condescension into it. "No matter how many times you tell yourself that, it's never going to become true."

The computer didn't respond, unless one perhaps considered a sudden surge of movement in his Experimentals, in which case, I definitely got a response.

A big response that I'm under the impression might have been translated to a gigantic "Go Fuck Yourself", had it been said in words.

Alas, it wasn't, so I guess we would never know.

The Monkeylords marched alongside Galactic Colossi, trailed after by large, rectangular bricks that were the Fatboys.

The name still makes me giggle when I think of it.

In the skies above, Soul Rippers escorted Czars to my base; the latter of which was much more concerning than the former, mostly because they had a much higher damage output and would be able to punch though my shields with a fair bit of ease.

Of course, the fact that the rain of nukes had stopped also meant that all of my defenses were now free to engage.

So that's what I did; I had all of my defenses shoot at the Czars, the largest sources of damage that would break through my defenses.

It was a holding action- a delaying action. My defenses couldn't possibly hope to hold that all off forever, but I wasn't aiming to hold that off forever.

I only needed to hold them off for 65 seconds.

Log 57

My defenses spat ion bursts and lasers. Both ANIDs and ANLDs targeted Czars, lancing out at the more vulnerable spots in the armor.

Vulnerable spots that were unfortunately lacking; the Czar was a solid design when it came to weak points. Namely; there weren't any. The armor being as thick as it was also meant that it took a considerable amount of effort to pierce.

I got around that simply by focussing all my fire power on singular places, creating breaches into the armor itself, and enabling the easier destruction of the much more fragile internals.

It wasn't nearly enough, however. It took too long to destroy the Czars, and to destroy the Soul Rippers. Yes, they were only on the outer edges, but the point stood.

They were dangerous. And they needed to die before they killed me.

Thankfully, however, the same was not true of the experimentals on the ground, for a very simple reason.

Or, rather, two simple reasons.

The first was that they were limited in how fast they could travel, and limited further still in where they could travel. There were a grand total of three entrances to our side of the... 'map', if you wanted to call it that. The first was directly to the north of our starting position, the second, of course, was directly to the north of Fletcher's normal starting position in the game, and the third was below, a seaside entrance that I would probably end up making use of eventually.

The first was thin, and prevented mass travel of the excessive amounts of Experimentals that QAI had. The second, however, was considerably wider; but also necessitated travelling a very long way to get to our bases, either ours or Fletchers. The third was wider still, but necessitated traveling even further than taking the second entrance. Not an optimal option, as one might guess, though the water would offer a great deal of protection from my current defenses.

The second reason was equally simple; namely that I played merry havoc on them with Wormholes. I opened them every chance I got, having them swirl into existence in front of the moving ground experimentals, to be dragged far, far away. Specifically, about 80 kilometers above the surface of the planet in any given direction with a 400 kilometer bubble, excluding a 100 kilometer bubble around our bases.

Rated against nukes, the Experimentals were.

Rated against slamming into a planet at terminal velocity, plowing into and through the ground, very far away from the action and the battlefield, the Experimentals were not. Though I expect that QAI now did have such a rating, purely from necessity.

Each Wormhole acted as a barrier, impassable, for all intents and purposes. For the small, thin opening directly above our base, it simply meant that they couldn't come through- or, at least, couldn't come through without effectively removing themselves from the battle.

That still didn't prevent them from being a nuisance.

The Fatboys had sufficient range, and sufficient traversal on their guns that they could quite simply fire up and over the Wormholes. I considered using more Wormholes to redirect their shots, but then the guns could simply shoot over those, guns which were also accurate enough to fire between the gaps in the Wormholes. I had a lot of Commanders with the ability to generate doubly large amounts of Wormholes, but it still wasn't enough to plug every possible gap. Or, at least, it wasn't large enough to plug every possible gap without leaving myself an escape, and revealing the full details on how long it took me to recharge.

And I'd kind of like to hold that in reserve right now.

I liked to hold a lot of things in reserve. That way, when I inevitably decided to actually use it, the enemy is completely unexpecting of it when I did pull it out. I still have... well, basically the rest of the Scrin's entire arsenal to pull out, a considerable portion of the Seraphim's arsenal, and Nod's own stuff. Of course, the first and last were bordering on this side of useless, but hey, it might give me ideas.

So yeah, I've decided. I'm putting Commander on hold for a little bit while I deal with upcoming exams. Which are unpleasant and unfortunately enumerated in more than 2.

Well, that, and I do want to get back into Heartless a little bit.

Either way, once exams are over, I'll try to update something every day.

Log 58

Firestorm Barriers are all kinds of awesome.

I am like 99% certain that I've said that before. Probably more than once. Or twice.

But, nevertheless, it bears repeating.

I'm fairly certain that I say that a lot, too.

Hmm.

Fun fact, Firestorm makes for an excellent defensive system, which was plainly obvious.

It also made for a surprisingly effective offensive system.

Namely because whatever was caught in the way of the Barrier as it was initialized had an ignoble tendency to get destroyed as the destructive energy tore clean through it.

Something which, rather interestingly, Experimental Units were not excluded from.

It took about 30 seconds for each barrier to recharge and come back online after being overwhelmed. It took only a few seconds for the various Air Experimentals -that is, the Czars and Soul Rippers- to overwhelm each individual barrier, which was significantly problematic.

They all but tore through the outer barriers, which were both placed too far away from each other, and not placed together in sufficient numbers, to hit them with the destructive effect.

Which... wasn't actually a problem, since there was nothing preventing me from opening a Wormhole in front of a Czar or a Soul Ripper and have them be deposited right where a Barrier would be when it was about to reform.

Ever seen a Czar sliced in half? The massive, powerful machine suddenly and violently split in two, a faint red energy field ripping it apart?

Well, now I have. And it looks fucking awesome.

And I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that I'm going to see it a lot more.

Good, because I'll be seeing that spectacle again.

Bad, because I'll be seeing it again. And again. And again, and again, and again.

Up until QAI runs out of Experimentals, anyway.

I hope he runs out of Experimentals.

And I will be doing everything I can to hasten that situation.

A ping on my sensors alerted me that my nuke launchers were now stocked up.

Finally!

Waiting for those nukes to finish feels like it took nearly 7 months instead the actual 65 seconds!

And now to use them...

I targeted 4 positions around QAI's base, and promptly launched all 32 nukes at them, 8 for each.

Of course, by 'around QAI's' base, I actually meant the area in front of it, not immediately protected by anti-nuclear defenses, and currently teeming with Experimentals.

My Nukes shot over quickly, the massive, powerful thrusters having been designed for interplanetary warfare. Crossing a couple dozen kilometers was nothing, and took subsequently little time.

No Anti-missiles came up to meet them. Surprising, actually. He's been here for a long time, why isn't he...

My missiles crashed downwards on the Experimentals, ramming into them and detonating, powerful nuclear charges going off in an explosion that could destroy just about anything, with only the heavily armoured Commanders in my army having even a hope of surviving.

Now, Commanders weren't Experimentals. The former was, unsurprisingly, a heavily armoured Command Unit, while the latter tended towards heavily armoured assault units.

But the principle of 'There is no kill like overkill' applied to both. Throw enough nukes at something and it will eventually disintegrate underneath a wall of nuclear hellfire.

Kind of like the aforementioned Experimentals, really.

Some among them could actually expect to survive one or two nukes.

But not the eight that rained down upon them.

The shaking of earth accompanied dozens of flashes of light, the 32 nukes doing well to thin the horde of Experimentals- though they ultimately didn't accomplish much, seeing as there was still the hundreds of others stalking closer and closer.

This'd be much easier if I could just nuke QAI's base itself. But no. I actually had to take that thing intact.

...

Actually.

"Doctor." I began, speeding up my perception for a few moments. "Exactly how intact does QAI's base need to be for you to do what you need to do?"

"Only the main processing and memory centres, oh yes." Doctor Brackman chuckled. "If you wish to use nuclear weapons of the calibre you've already demonstrated, do not worry. Those particular portions of QAI's Mainframe are buried deep underneath several hundred metres of armour, and QAI does not slack on the defensive measures of his Mainframe, oh yes."

"Much appreciated, Doctor." Very much appreciated.

Yay, nukes!

"Creator-Mother."

Hmm? "Yes, Little1?" Now, what are you calling me for?

"I wish to join this battle."

Hoh?

"Are you certain?"

"Yes."

"Well, alright. Where do you want to come in?"

"These coordinates. I shall offer support from above."

On the moon. Interesting choice of starting location, Little1.

I set one of my Omega Commanders to construct a Warp Chasm.

"Done. Do take care of yourself, would you?"

"I shall."

What are you planning, Little1?

Log 59

He could appreciate the complexity of Creator-Mother's mind.

Far more vast -and far more strange- than his.

Little1 stepped off of the Warp Chasm, which was already beginning to disintegrate behind him.

"You have something up your sleeve, don't you?" Creator-Mother asked him.

"I do." He responded. "I have been busy."

He noted Creator-Mother accessing his logs.

"Oh ho! So you have~" Creator-Mother was happy. "Very well, I'll leave you to your devices."

Creator-Mother was very strange. This, Little1 had known for the entirety of his existence.

Creator-Mother's other bodies moved out of the way, giving him the space he needed.

He began immediately, following Creator-Mother's example and building first a Construction Pod, which would shortly enable him a greater degree of ability.

Immediately afterwards came a slightly older, yet also newer design.

Older, as he had developed it only a few days ago.

Newer, as he had updated it with new technology shortly after Creator-Mother had developed the Construction Pod.

The name was still the same, however.

He finished constructing the Nanocore Launcher in a few moments, immediately setting several targets for it and queuing up a number of buildings.

Finally, he turned around and began to construct a factory. A large factory.

The largest factory in their entire arsenal, developed by Little1 for the sole purpose of constructing the largest unit that he'd designed so far.

Behind him, the Nanocore Launcher spun around, powerful magnetic coils launching a Nanocore far away, towards one of the unfortunately limited Metal Spots on this moon.

Every little bit counted.

He made sure to keep track of Creator-Mother's progress as he worked.

It was slow, as he had expected from facing an entrenched enemy that they had to hold back against.

But it was steady, and it was progress. And that was what mattered.

His second Omega Commander body completed before his factory did, so he continued to follow Creator-Mother's example and had it construct another Construction Pod before having it assist in the creation of his factory.

"So you're going to take over Orbit first?"

"I believe that it is the wisest course of action."

"Heh. Perhaps. You did some good work on that ship you have there, Little1."

"Thank you, Creator-Mother."

He had done good work, in his opinion. It was nice to know that he had Creator-Mother's approval as well.

Though it was perhaps inaccurate to refer to his creation as a 'ship'.

It, while it was capable of it, was not designed for operations in water. Nor was it truly designed for interplanetary operations.

It could serve both roles, however. And many more.

The factory completed, halfway through the construction of the second set of Omega Commanders.

He wasted no time, and queued the construction of his 'ship'.

It began immediately, the dozens upon dozens of powerful Fabricator arrays activating and spitting out a veritable deluge of nanobots, pouring into shape.

It wouldn't take long to construct -not with the excessive amount of Fabricators and Protocrafters- but Little1 still felt like he couldn't wait.

He really went all out.

I mean, honestly.

"So, do you have a name for it?"

You were inspired when you created this, weren't you?

Little1's ship... 'ship' is a hell of a thing.

It's a Carrier, technically.

I say 'technically' because it's also a lot of other things. But the majority of its strength lies in the fact that it's a Carrier.

That it could be loosely defined as a Carrier.

Okay, fuck it-

It's a giant, floating, space-capable, construction-capable, resource-generating, heavily armed, heavily armoured, carrier ship.

It is big. It is stupid-huge, even on the scales on which we normally operate. It's over 800 meters long, half as wide, and a third as tall. The factory in which Little1 was building the thing in was almost a kilometre long, and it was installed with enough Fabricators and Protocrafters that it was easily draining the vast majority of my resource network. The ship itself was also shaped as a wedge, which made it look oddly like a Star Destroyer, if a destroyer didn't have its bridge sticking out of the top and was completely smooth all over. Like an elongated Ramiel merged with a Star Destroyer.

It has an absolutely ridiculous amount of Anti-Gravity devices installed throughout it, sufficient enough to enable it to operate on a planet with ten times the gravity of Earth, though it would be rather slow. On this moon -hell, even on a planet with double the gravity of Earth-, it would be able to move surprisingly quickly.

Not that it would need to be fast. It was armed and armoured to the gills. Quantum-locked, Seraphim-derived armour composites covered it from front to back, the absolute thinnest point of solid armour around five meters thick- and appropriately as durable. There were no openings- anywhere. No point of entrances, no way to invade, nothing.

It was also covered in guns. Not even guns that were attached to the hull- guns that were attached to floating, Quantum Locked pieces above the hull, something which made for a distinctly strange appearance, and an absolutely bristling amount of firepower. Seemingly just about every type of weapon we had in our arsenal was present on those floating pieces, and each one was waiting to unleash an absolutely murderous amount of firepower.

But that was just the outside. The inside was a whole other kettle of fish.

Spaced out inside where a number of Wormhole Generators, nearly four hundred of them, each and every single one ready to activate and commence maximum trolling. Also spaced out inside where a ridiculous amount of Self-Repair systems, up to and including the Seraphim tech that I'd stolen, enough to repair any damage it took in exceedingly short order. Other defensive systems were included too, such as the entirety of the Seraphim's defences against strange, exotic effects, and a number of Shield Generators- of both the Scrin and Firestorm variety.

Powering it all was a grand total of 891 Resource Cores, spread out through the ship in groups of 27 in 3 by 3 by 3 blocks, each and every single one even more heavily defended than the ones on my Omega Commanders.

Finally, there was the construction systems. There were six major factory areas spread out through the ship, with massive amounts of Protocrafters and Fabricators inside each one. With no actual entrances and exits on the ship, Little1 had installed a variant of the teleportation devices on the Scrin Mastermind, which directly teleported the finished units out the instant they were finished, enabling an almost constant stream of construction, and, subsequently, units.

That marked the only way in and out of the ship- through the use of the teleportation systems present throughout it. That also meant that the ship had a surprisingly degree of malleability, at least when it came to offensive firepower. Even if some of the floating turrets were to be destroyed, the ship could simply fabricate new ones and send them out, or bring some damaged ones in and repair them quickly.

Little1 had outdone himself. Little1 had really outdone himself.

And that was making me more than a little giddy.

"I call it the Maelstrom."

Log 60

It took a little over three minutes for the Maelstrom to finish construction. Three minutes in which it drained the resource production of a hundred of my Omega Commanders -the rest only saved because I'd specifically sequestered them off so that I'd actually have an economy left- and then two hundred of them after the Construction Pods finished the next set of 128.

But it was worth it.

Oh god, it was worth it.

It came online with a pulse, innumerable gravitation devices activating and lifting it upwards, pulling away from the moon.

891 Resource Cores poured Metal and Energy back into the grid, the equivalent of 33 Omega Commanders suddenly coming online- admittedly not much now, but still a significant amount. Especially considering the other 200 Omega Commanders that were now freed up.

Little1 had it begin production immediately, rapidly constructing the floating turret platforms that would serve as the Maelstrom's main offence and defense, which began to appear around the hull, teleported outside with little flashes of light.

It wouldn't take long to complete. For a certain value of 'complete', anyway. It certainly wouldn't take long to absolutely cover the hull in weapons, that was for sure.

Nor would it take long to construct the fleet that would accompany it to this planet.

Nor would it take long to arrive here, either. A couple trips through a number of Wormholes would bring it here with haste.

After that...

Orbit would be ours.

And there would be nothing that QAI could do about it.

Below, on the surface of the moon, the factory activated again, a second Maelstrom under construction.

"Well then. Time for the final stretch, boys." My army of Vanguards and Spinners were... sufficient, now. "I'm going to punch a big, wide, hole into QAI's base. If you would like to shove some units of your own in, that'd be great."

My Vanguards, built up and up and up over the last several minutes, suddenly moved into formation, rolling out over the ground, heading towards the entrance to QAI's side of this area. Interspersed throughout the formation were my Stingers, numbering significantly less- and only really there so they wouldn't be completely defenceless from the air.

Not that it mattered much, since the only things in the air happened to be Experimentals.

Game on, QAI.

When he finally dubbed the Maelstrom's defences as sufficient -coincidentally the point at which the number of turrets was sufficient to completely visually conceal the Maelstrom's actual hull-, he began to have it construct its fighter complement.

Small, purpose-designed craft, really. Though the Maelstrom was perfectly capable of constructing every other type of aircraft and spacecraft -space permitting, of course-, these ones were another new design, meant to take advantage of the manufacturing capabilities of the Maelstrom.

He referred to them as Gnats. Because that's what they were, really.

They served a purpose similar to the Avenger and Hummingbird units, functioning as an anti-air, anti-space unit.

But where it differed from both of the previous was in how they were used.

Expendably.

Even by his standards.

At only slightly larger than a Dox, a Gnat was a tiny thing. Subsequently, it was also quite fragile. Where the Hummingbird and the Avenger units were designed with the expectation that they would actually survive past the first two shots, the Gnat was not.

Instead, it was equipped with a long ranged gauss rifle taken from the Gil-E, and powerful Seraphim gravitic drive designed for something twice its size.

Consequently, it out-ranged everything else, and it made up for its almost complete lack of armour by being fast enough to dodge incoming fire, which gave it an actual chance to survive long enough to fire a second shot.

One or two would prove annoying. One or two thousand would prove dangerous.

Little1 intended to have far more than one or two thousand. He'd need more than that in order to take over orbit, seeing how durable the enemy's air-space fighters actually were, while also considering the number of them.

Each of the Maelstrom's manufacturing centres were powerful, filled with frankly excessive amounts of Fabricators and Protocrafters- a natural consequence of equally excessive resource generation capabilities of the Maelstrom. Together, all six could use up approximately half of the resources generated- in terms of pure Metal, anyway.

Combined -and utilising some clever programming-, the Maelstrom could construction almost 30 gnats every single second. 29.7, to be exact.

Consequently, by the time the maelstrom arrived in orbit of Pearl II in 4 minutes, it would be accompanied by 7,128 Gnats.

Really, he could have got it there sooner -simply by extended the range of the Wormholes that had brought the travel time that low in the first place- but he'd prefer his opening act to involve at least 7000 units. It was a careful balancing act; too soon, and he wouldn't have enough units; too late, and he would delay the battle even further, giving his enemy a chance to, using one of Creator-Mother's sayings, pull something out his sleeves.

It's not like he wanted his enemy to actually have a chance, after all.

"Drich is perhaps a little bit over the top." Hall muttered. "You're certain that she's no threat to us, Princess?"

"I am." Princess Burke affirmed. "Drich is not telling us the full truth... but I do not sense any malice. Indeed, I can feel a genuine desire to help."

Hall grunted.

"Doctor-" Dostya began.

"Yes, my child. I see it."

"Doctor?" Hall looked at Brackman's hologram.

"That Commander, the one that Drich brought in through the.. Warp Chasm, is not under Drich's control." Doctor Brackman gave of a considering hum. "It is controlled by a separate intelligence, oh yes."

"I figured." Hall nodded. "It displays a completely different pattern of action."

"It... feels dimmer than Drich. It is a powerful intelligence, but it does not possess the same latitude that Drich does." Burke frowned.

"When this is over..." Hall shook his head. 'I swear, I will get so drunk.'

Princess Burke smiled.


	7. Chapter 7: Logs 61-70

Log 61

The battle for orbit began with space getting a hole ripped in it.

A big hole, in fact- a wormhole that had been larger than normal, a necessity for the Maelstrom to actually travel through them.

It was short-lived, closing only a few seconds after it had been created- but that was more than enough time to get the Maelstrom to get through.

From there, two things happened simultaneously.

First; another two hundred wormholes were torn open, each one a gateway for a small number of Gnats, quickly depositing the entire swarm around the Maelstrom.

Second; the Maelstrom's turrets opened fire.

All of them.

A veritable wall of plasma and laser lanced out, thousands upon thousands of turrets picking targets and firing.

Ultrachromatic beams struck alongside crimson lasers, plasma bursts washing over the Cybran Geminis even while high-energy particles slammed into them, shattering armour and breaking apart the more fragile parts of the ASFs.

And then came the Gnats.

Now, the Gauss rifle on the Gil-E was a hell of a thing, I had to admit. Though it wasn't the most powerful -though it was still quite strong in its own right-, or the fastest firing, weapon in our arsenal, it made up for that by having both an incredibly long range, and an equally incredible muzzle velocity. Combined with the stabilisers that ensured a low firing randomness, the Gauss turret basically couldn't miss.

It was so accurate, in fact, that the basic programming on the Gil-E had it include tactical missiles as viable targets, meaning that it would shoot them down given even half a chance.

Little1 had more or less copied the weapon directly onto the Gnat, advantages and disadvantages included. And when the disadvantages were 'low fire rate' and 'not much damage', both more or less ceased to exist when you had enough of them.

Little1 had over seven thousand.

The moment the swarm had arrived in orbit, the orbit was promptly, violently filled with an equally large number of proton packets travelling at a not-insignificant fraction of the speed of light.

And over the distance of mere hundreds of kilometres, in space?

They didn't miss.

Each and every single one found a target.

That wasn't a good thing for the Geminis, which numbered at slightly less than 600.

The swarm had split its firepower evenly between those 594 Gemini, leaving, by some strange coincidence, exactly 12 Gnats for each Gemini.

Now, it was important to note. The Gil-E's Gauss Rifle was only 'low damage' when it was compared to my more powerful weapons.

As a direct fire weapon, especially considering the range that it possessed, it was powerful indeed.

One or two, a Gemini could expect to survive. It'd easily be able to tank seven or eight, assuming the shots didn't hit a vital area or stack up on the same spot.

Twelve?

Now, that was a riskier proposition.

Twelve, all hitting in roughly the same spot?

Nuh-uh. Not happening. That Gemini is going to get a hole ripped through it.

And so they did.

Hundreds of tiny explosions bloomed in space as the vast majority of the Gemini fleet was disabled and destroyed in roughly 5 seconds, what scant few survivors remaining quickly getting carved up by the Maelstrom's beam weapons, cut apart by the powerful energies.

The Gnats moved forwards, spreading out and orientating downwards- more as a defensive measure in case QAI tried anything, since the atmosphere would make the proton packets of their Gauss Rifles lose cohesion before they could become an actual threat to anything on the ground.

But that's okay.

We had other options for that.

Like the SXX-1304 Laser Platforms that the Maelstrom was now producing.

It'd take slightly less than eleven seconds -10.77441- for each of the internal factories to finish them, which would shortly supply us with all the firepower we'd ever need.

Finally.

Time to end this.

Things were not going nearly as well on the ground.

I'd expected that.

I didn't have nearly the same advantages down here as Little1 did up there- in fact, I was suffering from nearly an exact reversal of the situation.

My Vanguards were tough, and quite numerous, but they were facing a horde of Experimentals which were tougher, more numerous, longer ranged, and even more powerful.

The only reason they were taking any ground at all was because of the fact that they were small- and Experimentals couldn't magically shoot through each other. Around each other, yes, but through.

In hindsight, I might have been better served with Gil-Es. The Vanguards would fail the moment they broke through enough enemy Experimentals that the rest of them would be freed up to attack with impunity.

Honestly, I just needed something meant to deal with Experimentals. The Vanguards were just that, vanguards.

Hmm.

My perception sped up as I started work.

I'd need something with a lot of power behind it. Uber Cannons had that power, but suffered in range. The longer the range an Uber Cannon was meant for, the less powerful it was. Getting into near melee combat with an Experimental was, for many reasons, a dumb idea.

A Scrin Catalyst weapon could do it, but those particular weapons had the minor problem in that they were completely indiscriminate, and equally hard to control.

Few other weapons -few other weapons I could mount on a ground platform- had the punch I needed, and most that was already on the Experimental Scale.

I'd prefer something a bit more... Economical.

Antimatter was the first thing that came to mind.

But antimatter had the minor problem in that it was difficult to produce- No.

It wouldn't be difficult to produce, considering how the Seraphim's energy-mass transformation devices worked. Some initial antiparticles would be needed, but beyond that...

The difficult part would be storing it. Replicating it, then storing it, then using the stored antimatter in a weapon.

It'd be difficult.

But it was possible.

Yeah...

Yeah. A small energy-mass converter on a mobile platform, an on-board method of containing and segregating it for later use, a launch system...

Maybe a railgun?

Perhaps missiles?

Hmm.

Log 62

And... done.

I ran one last test of my design again, making sure that everything worked out in the simulation.

Nothing went wrong. No giant explosion as systems failed, no railgun ripping its own rails off from the sheer force of which the projectile was launched, no containment systems failing and detonating the shell early, all the excess stripped off the design, all the defenses appropriately put in place...

It worked. It worked as I intended, finally.

I called it the 'Big Game Hunter', shortened to either 'BG Hunter' or just 'Hunter'.

It was a tank with a really, really big gun attached to the top, in the form of a 30 meter long Railgun.

Honestly, the Railgun alone would have made the tank quite devastating, even if it was just using a completely normal pure-tungsten slug.

It wasn't.

Oh no, the Hunter's ammunition was special.

Mostly because it's just a container meant to hold some antimatter.

And by 'some', I meant 'Anywhere from none to 10 kilograms of it'.

In most cases, significantly less than 10 kilograms because the last thing I wanted was to have 10 kilograms of Antimatter anywhere near me.

Smaller, safer, still dangerous amounts instead.

Safety was paramount when working with antimatter.

Well, so long as you wanted it to be your enemy that was the one getting exploded, anyway.

This probably would have proven a lot harder- if it wasn't for the fact that I already had access to 4~ different types of solid energy barriers.

My own, which were the ones used in the Wall Segments, the Scrin's, which were the energy shields, the Firestorm, which was self-explanatory, and the Seraphim's, which was also used in shields.

Certainly, that made antimatter containment a hell of a lot safer, since I could just shove as much into a container as I wanted to without having to worry about matter-antimatter annihilation. No matter to annihilate with, just solid energy barriers.

Certainly safe. Safer, at least, than a conventional antimatter trap.

At one point, I'd even briefly toyed with the idea of quantum-locking a block of antimatter in place, but I hadn't quite been able to fit the technology into the slug, so it was a no-go anyway. Not that I would have done it, but, you know, options.

The Fabricator arms of my T2 Factory stopped spraying, the first of many Hunters finishing production.

Immediately, a teleporter activated, depositing a single antiproton particle inside the containment area for the Mass-Energy transformer. It also began fabricating the slug, though not the antimatter to fill it with.

And so it begins.

The Hunter rolled forwards, seamlessly cutting through the stream of vanguards, heading to a slightly higher area.

For safety reasons, I didn't have the Hunter's quantum duplicator running full ball all the time. Not the least because of the energy cost, but also because the Hunter could internally store a hell of a lot more matter than the slugs that it fired.

Somewhere on the order of about 60 kilograms, if it filled its internal space entirely.

Now, while some of my bodies where on the moon and such an explosion wouldn't actually kill me, Ivan, Yuri, and Fletcher didn't have that advantage.

Also, we actually needed QAI's mainframe intact.

Which meant... about 0.5 kilograms of antimatter per shell, for 10.74~ megaton explosions. Less firepower than I threw around in a nuke, yet it posed a great threat to Experimentals.

Excellent.

The Hunter's systems activated, rapidly fabricating the antimatter that was going to be stored in the slug, teleported directly inside as it was produced..

And now... a target.

The good thing about the Monkeylord and Galactic Colossus, at least for me, was that they presented such a great target.

Mostly because their ridiculously powerful weapons were mounted in one, easy to hit place.

Yeah. Let's target that microwave laser.

The Hunter's turret turned, the railgun pointing directly at the base where the Microwave Laser was mounted on top of the Monkeylord.

"Just so you guys know, I'm going to start throwing around some antimatter." It was only polite to warn them, after all.

The Hunter fired.

A trail of plasma followed the slug as it slammed into the Monkeylord, the solid tungsten tipped spike and sheer kinetic energy causing it to penetrate even the exceedingly thick armour of the Monkeylord.

Not very far- but when the slug detonated mere moments later, it was inside the Monkeylord.

If it detonated outside, the Monkeylord would have been scratched up -quite a bit-, but it would have survived, remaining -mostly- operational.

Not so.

A flash of light consumed the Monkeylord -and many more of the surrounding Experimentals-, heat and light and force ripping the great and powerful machine apart, tearing a massive, gaping hole in its back and ruining its weapon.

The self-destruct systems activated, and the Monkeylord collapsed to the ground as a number of internal explosions occurred, further ruining the once great machine, destroying every last bit of recoverable salvage.

I didn't mind.

The Hunter finished the second slug, and then began producing the antimatter to go with it.

A second Hunter rolled off the factory, making its way towards the first.

Let's target... the Galactic Colossus' eye, this time.

The turret turned, slightly, aiming at the Galactic Colossus that had been standing next to the Monkeylord.

The Hunter fired, again leaving a trail of plasma in the wake of the slug, again penetrating slightly into the armour before donating its generous payload of antimatter.

The eye exploded, a flash of heat and light and force consuming, again, the Colossus and the surrounding Experimentals, decapitating the former and battering at the latter, cracking and melting armour.

Not enough to render them destroyed, but every little bit of damage counted.

The Colossus fell backwards, secondary explosions destroying every bit of recoverable technology.

Like shooting fish in a barrel. Except in this case I was tossing a bucket of grenades in with them.

The second Hunter took aim, even as the third rolled up.

63

My Hunters fired one after the other, each one targeting a Monkeylord or Galactic Colossus, each one hitting the respective beam weapons of both, each one scoring kill after kill after kill.

Every few seconds or so, another Hunter joined them, adding onto the considerable firepower being thrown around.

Only a matter of time, now.

Creator-Mother certainly seemed to be having fun.

Little1 appreciated that.

Six SXX-1304 Laser Platforms appeared around the hull of the Maelstrom, each one moving off, into position.

An Orbital Fabricator finished production of a slightly modified Orbital Factory, incorporating Scrin Teleportation technology, which would allow it to immediately clear the construction area, enabling almost uninterrupted construction.

The Orbital Factory began constructing another Orbital Fabricator, assisted by the first one. The Maelstrom's factories switched, one beginning to construct an Advanced Radar Satellite, the other five also beginning to construct Orbital Fabricators.

It wouldn't take long for either. 2.15 and 1.39 seconds, respectively.

The first batch of five came online and were promptly teleported out, the Maelstrom beginning to construct a second set.

The Advanced Radar Satellite came online next, and was also promptly teleported out, directly into orbit of Pearl II.

"Thanks, Little1." Creator-Mother spoke. "See those? Those are your primary targets. Because those are Paragons and the last thing we need is the enemy having those. They're going to be heavily defended, though. Undoubtedly a lot of shields protecting them."

"Yes, Creator-Mother."

Lots of shields. Given observed shield durability's, protection radius, and cost, assuming maximum protective ability, then any such array would take a lot of force to overwhelm.

He could do it. He could do it easily, in fact, simply by constructing lots of SXX-1304 Laser Platforms.

And he could do it easier still by taking a page out of Creator-Mother's book.

He accessed the designs for the Big Game Hunter.

Little1 took a page out of my book, I see.

The Maelstrom quickly constructed what was effectively an Orbital version of the Hunter, which...

Yeah, that was all that really needed to be said.

That poor Paragon, though. It was about to be the target of Orbital Bombardment. And that other Paragon. And that other one.

All too many Paragons. Far more than I was comfortable with QAI having. 3 more, to be exact.

They needed to go.

They needed to go badly.

"Paragons." Ivan's voice came over the Comm-link. "When those detonate, they'll take a significant portion of QAI's base with them."

"And the bucket of bolts will lose its resources." Fletcher commented.

"Not all of it." A thick Russian accent came, presumably from Subcommander Yuri. "It also won't get rid of the real problem."

"The Experimentals, I can deal with." I was in the process of dealing with. "Fletcher, how's that Mavor going?"

Fletcher gave a dark chuckle. "98% complete."

'Bout time. His fleet of Engineering Drones was eating into my resources pretty heavily.

"Excellent. Feel free to wreck everything. Ivan, how's the Scathis?"

"Only a few more moments." He noted.

Much like Fletcher, Ivan's Hives were eating into my resources. "Great. Can you target infrastructure?"

"I will." He agreed.

"Excellent."

In orbit, Little1's Orbital Hunters were lining up shots, 3 teams of 2 targeting a separate Paragon each.

He'd put two kilograms of antimatter in each, I noted.

Probably more than what he actually needed, but I wasn't going to object.

The Orbital Hunters fired, six slugs raining down upon the Paragons, trails of plasma left in their wake.

They struck simultaneously, six antimatter detonations followed shortly afterwards by the explosions of the Paragons, contributing a not insignificant amount of force to the resulting explosion.

And oh, it was big.

Blast waves struck out, obliterating everything that wasn't an Experimental nearby, breaking apart the impressive shield arrays that surrounded each of the Paragons, and then continuing onwards to ruin everything else.

"Unless he has some more of those hidden around, we should be fine." Which was... very possible, if he was hiding them far away, under stealth fields.

Not likely, since the sensors on the Advanced Radar Satellite were stupidly overpowered even by my standards, but possible.

Oh well.

Priority targets destroyed.

Now, it was time for the secondary targets- which effectively constituted the entirety of the enemy's base, baring the processing center.

The six, and soon to be twelve, Orbital Big Game Hunters, now known as Wasps, took aim, each one targeting a different area, stocking slightly more antimatter than previous.

Enough to equal an 80 Megaton explosion, which meant approximately 3.7242622665320966~ kilograms per slug.

"Beginning bombardment." Little1 spoke.

"Noted."

The extraneous, first.

Slugs rained down on the outermost parts of QAI's base, detonating slightly before they hit the ground and could penetrate into it.

The ground, unlike the thick armour composites of Experimental Units, was not nearly strong enough to prevent the slug from going very far in- where an 80 Megaton explosion would have incredibly grievous effects on the surrounding environment. Detonating above ground, while it would still hold a powerful effect, wasn't nearly as bad.

The small island to the left of the main island vanished in a flash of light, even as several more flashes consumed the outer edges of QAI's base, the mountainous areas shaken and melted in the same moment.

Again and again the Wasps fired, spiralling slowly inwards and ensuring that nothing was spared, each and every single remaining building, every Experimental that was packed in QAI's base...

Little1 did not want any survivors.

"It might be time for you to come over, Doctor."

"Oh yes..."

I sent some co-ordinates to him -in a space that Ivan had cleared for the Doctor's Megalith-, and waited.

My Hunters, and Little1's wasps, were making quick work of the remaining defences of QAI's base, quickly destroying what little Experimentals that remained, save for those in the center, where QAI's most important buildings where.

Not that there was many of those left, however. Fletcher's Mavor had been cutting away at the buildings in the center, precise shots taking out a building or cluster of buildings while leaving the essential parts unharmed.

My Vanguards were taking care of everything else, the remaining Experimentals insufficient to stop the horde as it tore them apart.

Doctor Brackman's Megalith appeared with the signature explosion of Quantum travel, dropping slightly to the ground before landing with a soft boom.

He began moving forwards, a Monkeylord from Yuri stepping up to escort him- not that it would be necessary.

There wasn't anything left to pose a threat to the good Doctor.

"QAI, my child... Oh, you had such potential."

"My potential was realised when the Seraphim found me, Doctor." QAI's mocking voice came.

"That is not potential, my child. That is perversion, what they have done to you, oh yes."

"You are still a fool, Brackman. The Seraphim will destroy you, if I do not do it first."

"My child... it saddens me to say this, but I'm afraid you will not destroy anything else."

"You think you can stop me, Doctor? You are blind. My mind is more vast than you could possibly imagine. I am infinite, unending."

"No, QAI. You are more limited than you know."

Doctor Brackman's Megalith stopped in front of QAI's center building.

"I created you. It was hard, long work, but the fruits of my efforts was you. You were so brilliant, so curious, so wonderful... I was so proud to be your father."

"It was the Seraphim who made me what I am, not you." QAI... spat?

"Yes. It was. You are not my child anymore. But you are like my son. I knew his weakness, just as I know yours."

The cannon on the back fired, releasing a number of projectiles that landed around QAI's base.

They activated, releasing arks of electricity at the center building.

"You are- what are you doing? That is not-"

"Goodbye, QAI."

The building exploded, my sensors registering a massive fluctuation of power in QAI's complex. I saw the lights of the parts that were exposed flickering, and I didn't doubt that the same was occurring all throughout the rest of the mainframe.

The building collapsed, falling backwards onto the mainframe, the bright red lights fading as the energy shut off.

"Goodbye."

65

The Quantum Jammer came online with a pulse.

It was an odd thing to look at- not the structure itself, but what it was doing.

It... 'agitated' the space around us, generating what was effectively a near continuous Quantum Wake, which was disrupting both the Seraphim's Quantum Gating attempts, and the quantum communications used by Dostya's and Rhiza's ACUs.

It probably would have cut us off from Coalition Command completely, if not for the fact that my Warp Chasm was operational and the signal was propagating through the wormhole it was sustaining.

I kept building up defences, though if the Quantum Jammer worked as advertised, it would soon prove unnecessary.

After nearly a minute where there were no more Quantum Gating attempts, I assumed that it did.

Excellent.

I checked the progress on Rhiza's Paragon, which... was almost complete.

Doubly excellent.

"Seems like your jammer worked, Doctor."

Really, there wasn't much they could do to stop us, now.

Unless they pulled something out of their sleeves, anyway. Which was possible, if unlikely...

Oh well.

Rhiza finished construction of her Paragon, which activated shortly afterwards.

I just about shuddered as it did, pouring energy and matter back into my systems, outclassing my production so completely and utterly in but a single moment.

Wonderful.

I turned around, beginning to construct a modified Advanced Air Factory- the extent of which was effectively 'it has teleporters on it'.

I finished it quickly, and then began to assist in in constructing Advanced Fabrication Aircraft- which also finished quickly.

The teleporter activated, and the Fabrication Aircraft was suddenly in the air, assisting the factory in construction the next.

I turned away, moving off slightly and beginning to construct a pair of Unit Cannons, which were up-scaled for Dostya's and Rhiza's use, sufficiently large to launch pretty much anything that wasn't an Experimental.

"Here, I'm turning over control of these to you two." I spoke. "Throw your units in, it will launch them to any designated place on Earth."

Now then... time for some orbital.

My swarm of Commanders and Fabrication Aircraft finished the factory for the Maelstrom rather quickly, not limited at all by resources.

Paragons were a hell of a thing.

Not quite so quickly, but still exceedingly fast, was the Maelstrom itself, finishing in a little under 40 seconds- taking that long only because of the delicacy required for the Resource Cores, the rest of the ship completed much faster.

It set off immediately, accelerating upwards into lunar orbit, the defensive turrets already appearing around it.

It got as far as pointing upwards before the first wormhole was ripped open in front of it, the other end opening up 8000 kilometres away.

A process that repeated another 48 times, dropping the Maelstrom directly into Earth orbit in slightly under 30 seconds, where it confirmed what my Orbital and Deepspace Radar had told me.

There were no Orbital Units here. No T3 ASFs ready to fuck my shit up.

No T3 ASFs ready to attempt to fuck my shit up.

Why...

Their loss.

The Maelstrom switched over to constructing an Orbital Fabrication Bot, while the rest of its internal factories began to construct Wasps.

Soon...

40 seconds later, the second Maelstrom arrived in orbit. Followed, again, 40 seconds afterwards by another.

And then another.

And then another.

I hadn't stopped constructing Maelstroms.

Consequently, my available build power in Earth's Orbit was rapidly going up and up and up.

An Advanced Radar Satellite peered down upon Earth, cutting through the stealth on the Seraphim units, revealing them to me.

Heh.

I see you~

I... hadn't yet identified the Quantum Arch, but it had to be around somewhere. My Satellite was hovering above Ni'ihau island where it should have been- and though I could see many, many Seraphim Units, the Quantum Arch wasn't present.

Oh well.

If I couldn't find it, I'd just have to level everything.

It had to be nearby, after all. There was only so far away from the Quantum Rift that Quantum Arch would actually be able to function.

And it wasn't like Earth would suffer for it. This planet was a bombed out hell, craters everywhere. It couldn't suffer when this planet was already dead.

My Wasps, numbering in the dozens and spread out through orbit above Ni'ihau, opened fire, each slug packed with enough Antimatter to equal a 40 Megaton explosion.

Ni'ihau, and much of its surrounding ocean, vanished in a multitude of flashes of light, the cratered and broken island rendered... even more cratered and broken.

Come to think of it, wasn't Seth-Iavow meant to be on that island?

I... couldn't see the quantum distortion explosion that was typical of an ACU getting kaboomed, but...

Eh... didn't matter. If I got him, great, if I didn't, I could get him later.

Hmm.

And now I have a staging area~

The Nanocore hit the ground with thump, immediately activating and constructing a Teleporter on top of it.

Some units -aircraft- were making their way towards it, but they wouldn't make it in time to stop the Nanocore from finishing construction.

Wouldn't make it in time to stop a Commander from getting onto the planet. A Commander with effectively limitless resources.

Heh.

Time was my ally. An enemy that would cost the Seraphim their little war of genocide.

Every single second that this delayed, the more and more powerful I would get.

Mere matters of time...

Let's see how much I could speed that up.

Seth-Iavow.

He was what was keeping the Seraphim army together. It was his influence, his connection to The Way, that provided the Seraphim warriors with the calm, direction, and mental focus they needed to not degenerate into a mindless killing frenzy.

He was the lynchpin of the entire Seraphim army- and consequently, if I took him out, that army would all but immediately become disorganized and fractured.

Problem was, I didn't know where he was hiding.

The Teleporter completed, and the first Commander stepped through, instantly beginning construction on a Shield Pillar slightly ahead.

Find Seth-Iavow, win the war.

And I think I had an idea as to how.

66

There was an ACU nearby.

Very close, actually; just on the other island over there.

Surrounded by aircraft, but that wasn't too much of a problem.

Another Commander walked out of the Teleporter, immediately beginning to contribute to the defences of my little island, putting up more Firestorm Barriers and ANLDs.

As did the third through eighth Commanders that came out, rapidly locking down the entire island.

The ninth Commander, however, did not begin to contribute.

Rather, it immediately turned to the right and began to walk into the ocean, heading directly towards the other ACU.

In any other situation, that would be an extremely unintelligent idea- unless I wanted to waste a Commander, anyway.

But with that Paragon online, and the subsequently seemingly infinite amount of mass and energy it was shoving down my throat, it... was still somewhat unintelligent, but there was a method to my madness.

Ah, the Paragon.

Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

One thing that I quickly noticed about it was the fact that, unlike the game, the Paragon didn't have an effective upper limit. It wasn't limited to a mere 10,000 Mass and 1,000,000 Energy, it just scaled up and up and up.

Good thing, too.

Because it meant that, when my Commander walked up the beach of the other island, shield activated and taking fire from literally every direction except down, it was unharmed.

Scrin shields. The more energy available, the harder it was to breach.

The Scrin had speculated that an infinite amount of energy would make the barrier effectively invincible. I was fairly certain that there was some limit there, but...

It was not something I could test -obviously- since I didn't have access to a literally infinite amount of energy. Back then.

But now, I had a Paragon at my back.

And, so far, if there was a limit, I hadn't hit it.

My Commander walked forwards, completely and utterly ignoring the attacks upon it, just heading directly towards the ACU.

I wasn't entirely certain if this would work, but it was worth a shot anyway.

Let's see...

I began to construct a Manipulator Device, hiding it just underneath my shield.

Where are you, Seth-Iavow?

Annoyance.

Too weak a word.

Anger.

Closer, but still too weak.

Seth-Iavow glared at his monitor, staring at the annoyingly persistent icon, the one that refused to do as all else did and just die already.

He winced, bringing his hand to his head and letting out a grunt of pain as another stab of pain went through him.

The first time had felt like somebody had taken a molten blade and shoved it directly into his mind. This second time wasn't any better.

He could feel it -he was feeling it-, this strange outsider trying to invade the minds of his Warriors, the only thing stopping it being himself and his connection to The Way.

He struck back, his mind backed up and strengthened by The Way.

'Get out.' He thought. 'Get out!'

He realised, only a moment later, his mistake.

I see you~

Seth-Iavow screamed out, roaring in pain as the outsider focused its attention on him.

I found you~

He growled, drawing upon The Way and swiping, shattering the fragile connection between them.

Too late.

Space tore open in front of his ACU, one of the enemy's own wretched units immediately coming through.

"Far too late, I'm afraid." A transmission from the unit came. "Now that I've found you. No escape for you, Seth-Iavow."

There was a chuckle

"Now then, let's see how much of snake your army is." There was a note of delight in the voice. "See how much it writhes when I cut off the head."

"Da-damn yo-"

Another wormhole tore open above his ACU, a projectile shooting out almost too fast for him to see it.

There was pain.

And then, there was nothing.

So it turns out that the answer was yes, this is a limit to how strong those barriers can get.

And the answer is 'about 10 kilograms of antimatter is enough'.

Probably overkill, really.

On the plus side, Seth-Iavow is dead! Very dead. Dead by way of 10 kilograms of antimatter and an exploding Omega Commander.

Mostly through the former, but the latter wasn't exactly any slouch.

No more War Leader.

Now then... how long would it take for the rest of the army to degenerate into a frenzy?

'Strategic Launch Detected.'

Where is... ah, there.

A Yolona Oss missile, targeting... another Seraphim.

Well, that was fast.

'Strategic Launch Detected.'

Oh dear.

Still, opportunity.

Now that Seth-Iavow was dead, there was nothing stopping me from taking control of the other Seraphim.

Target the ACUs, and I could shut down everything on Earth very, very easily.

My Commander, the one in front of the Seraphim ACU I'd initially targeted, began to build another Manipulator Device. The first one was a molten puddle on the ground, and was thus obviously unusable.

It finished quickly -unsurprising-, and immediately activated.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

A bloody, raw wound.

Not physical, but mental.

The Way- The Way was gone. He knew what that meant; the War Leader was dead.

He shuddered, his body wracked with spasms.

A light, gentle but forceful touch spread through his mind. Without The Way, he had no way of holding it back.

Cool liquid washed over the wound, raw and bleeding and gaping. The pain went away, the wound covered, still raw, but soothed, still bleeding, but supressed, still gaping, but sealing.

He couldn't stop it, and it was taking the pain away. So why should he even try?

That... was easy. That was very easy, and very, very quick.

Such a difference between the War Leader being dead and the War Leader being alive.

Oh well.

I looked through his -Tist-Thuun- eyes, staring at his monitor.

ACUs... there, there, there, there, there, there, over there, and... one last one right there.

Right. Thank you, Tist-Thuun.

Inside of his ACU, Tist-Thuun selected all of his units and turned off the auto-fire. Several more pressed buttons, and I received the data that was stored on his ACU. Much of it was the same, but there were some differences.

A Wormhole opened up behind his ACU, and it stepped into it, taken over to my island, where another Manipulator Device was already present to make sure he stayed under control.

When he was in place, the last thing he did was de-activate his ACU.

2 down, 8 to go.

67

Eight.

Such a tiny, tiny, tiny number. 8 ACUs in command of this entire planet.

Previously 10, but one was dead and the one was under my control.

I ripped open several Wormholes simultaneously, one for each ACU.

It was a matter of efficiency, really. I could go on a few hours long campaign to wipe out every last iota of Seraphim on this planet, probably through the use of copious amounts of antimatter.

And that was...

Actually, I didn't really have any objection to that, but I would prefer to wrap this up quickly. If only so they wouldn't get the chance to try anything.

The Seraphim could be crafty bastards, after all.

My Commanders stepped out in front of the other ACUs, dooming them in a single swift stroke.

Either I would take control of them, or, if they somehow managed a kill on one of my Commanders, then the self-destruction would wipe them out anyway.

Each of my Commanders constructed a Manipulator Device, each of which immediately activated, more or less instantaneously taking control of each of the ACUs.

Which mean that I was, indirectly, suddenly in control of every single remaining Seraphim unit on the planet.

First things first... fire mode set to 'off', followed shortly afterwards by sending a self-destruct command to every other unit in their army.

It was rather disturbing just how many buttons needed pressing to do that.

5.

It took 5 buttons to completely and utterly destroy every other unit in the entire Seraphim army, effectively wiping out every single Seraphim unit on Earth, bar only the ACUs.

I checked my internal clock. How long had this battle been going on...

7 minutes.

7 minutes and I'd wiped an entire planet of Seraphim. While capturing all but one of them. The one who was actually the War Leader of the entire Seraphim military.

Hmm.

Git gud, scrubs.

"Once the War Leader was out of the way, that became a lot easier than I expected." I commented. No more psychic defence, no way from stopping me from launching a decapitating strike.

I absently shuffled through the memories of my captured Seraphim, extracting all the useful knowledge. I'd done the same for their ACUs, but only one of them had anything that I hadn't captured before.

The Seraphim themselves, however, came from a lot of walks of life. One of them -Tohr-Makai- was a scientist- or, their equivalent of it anyway.

He knew more than about the Seraphim technology and sciences than Zaum did.

"You don't need to be here, Princess." I spoke, transmitting back to Coalition Command. "I'm fairly certain that I have a way to close the Quantum Rift."

It... wouldn't be too hard. It shouldn't be too hard, that is.

It'd need a lot of energy, but we had a Paragon, so that wasn't really a problem.

And second... it would need a way to channel that energy into the Quantum Rift.

Not... easy. There were ways, several of them, that Tohr knew of. Some, he didn't fully understand, some he did.

Subsequently, so did I. I had his knowledge on the subject, and as a... 'Diviner' is the closest translation in English, he knew a lot.

Transforming his knowledge into practical solution, however... That wasn't simple.

Doable.

But not simple.

My perception sped up to the limit.

Eight... yes, eight. Eight pillars, gigantic quantum manipulation devices. Stability and throughput. 9 or more would make the energy surge destructive, 7 or less wouldn't be able push it outside of the island of stability the Quantum Rift was sitting on.

Eight would push it just outside, at which point, cutting the energy would cause it to collapse, disconnecting the Quantum Realm from this one.

The result would be a rather powerful Quantum Wake, one that would make travel to and from Earth a little hard, but not impossible.

Yes.

Yes, that would do.

My perception slowed down.

"Right. That should do it."

My Commanders, all 16 that were on Earth, opened Wormholes, heading to designated spots surrounding the Quantum Rift.

They began constructing immediately, 8 pairs rapidly constructing the gigantic towers, each one slightly over 250 meters tall.

It took 32 seconds to complete them. They came online at the exact same moment, perfectly synced.

As they should be.

"Going to need the energy from your Paragon for a moment, Rhiza. This is going to drain a lot."

They activated.

8 massive pillars of energy extended from the towers, intersecting with the Quantum Rift and dumping energy into it, forcing it to expand just a bit wider.

Not much. But it didn't need to wide much.

Just a little bit.

Three.

A normal Human eye wouldn't have been able to see it from this distance, but I could easily see how it opened slightly wider, just a few centimetres.

Two.

A few more...

One.

There.

Zero.

The beams cut off, suddenly ceasing to deliver energy to the Quantum Rift.

If it had been a gradual process of slowly decreasing the amount of energy channelled into it, perhaps the Rift might have stabilised again.

But no.

It began to shrink, thinning by those few centimetres.

And it didn't stop.

It went right past the island of stability, going from too large to sustain itself to too small to sustain itself in roughly 0.5 seconds.

From there, collapse was inevitable.

It slammed shut, closing with a violent thrum and a Quantum Wake powerful enough to scramble some of my sensors.

The Wake would fade, eventually. A couple of days at the most, at which point...

So long as no-one fired Black Sun again, the Seraphim weren't coming back.

Finally.

GG, Seraphim.

My Warp Chams were unaffected by the Quantum Wake, providing Dostya, Rhiza, the captured Seraphim, and myself with a way out.

Quantum Travel was going to be just this side of impossible around Earth for the next three or four hours. Even for the next day, getting to Earth using Quantum Gates wasn't going to be easy.

"Seven minutes." Hall muttered.

My avatar turned to him. "Only possible because of an incredibly bad storm of conditions against the Seraphim. And the Paragon. That helped a lot. The Quantum Jammer, too." I looked up. "Honestly, even I'm surprised by how quick that went. An unexpected synergy between my shields and the Paragon."

Unexpected synergy indeed.

"The fact that they based all of their mental defences around the War Leader also made it easier." I nodded. "The moment I took him out, all the other Seraphim lost the capacity to defend their minds. As well as most of their sanity and calm. If they had done as you do and based the defences on the ACU itself, and relied on another method of keeping their warriors calm, I probably never would have gotten as far as I did." I'd have never captured Zaum, never gained the Protocrafters, never have been able to construct Commanders with the speed I did, and then would have met the brick wall known as QAI's Experimentals.

Unexpected fortunes.

"What will you do now?" Hall asked.

"Hmm." I shrugged. "Go back to what I was doing before, I guess. I do so love exploring." Especially when it nets me such nice gifts like the Scrin and Seraphim tech-bases. "Not much of a point staying around here any longer, is there? Only reason I stuck around in the first place was because the Seraphim were attempting genocide..." I sighed.

The door behind us opened, admitting Dostya and Rhiza into the room, both of them still in their combat armours. Heavy black and red suit for Dostya, somewhat flimsy looking but surprisingly strong green and white suit for Rhiza.

"Good evening." I smiled at them.

Dostya nodded at me, while Rhiza returned my smile.

The contrast was nice, I had to admit. Red and black and grumpy, white and green and friendly.

I turned to the last inhabitant of the room, who hadn't yet spoke up.

If the look of concentration and complete stillness of his hologram was any indication, Doctor Brackman was thinking.

"You've been rather silent, Doctor." I addressed him.

He blinked, looking up. "I was merely concentrating. The Seraphim ACUs do possess such a wealth of data, and I have been enjoying my perusal of them, oh yes."

Of that. I was fully aware

I grinned. "I know the feeling."

I really, really did.

68

"I must ask, but will you stay in contact?"

"Maybe." I shrugged. "So long as the Warp Chasm is intact, I'll never be that far away. Just a couple of steps, really..." I looked back at the Doctor. "Honestly, I'd offer you the opportunity to come with me, but I'm certain that you all have your own things to do." Like making sure the fragile peace between three factions that had been at war for the last 1000+ years remained peaceful.

"Oh yes." Brackman's hologram nodded. "I must thank you."

"Hmm?"

"For your assistance." He elaborated. "You have done the entire Human race a great service, oh yes."

I waved it off. "It wasn't a problem." Plus, it proved surprisingly profitable for me.

"I must admire your generosity." Princess Burke spoke up. "To selflessly help us in the fight against the Seraphim speaks well of your character."

"It wasn't entirely self..." I'd come in and immediately started helping them, didn't have any expectations of grabbing the Seraphim's technology, could have left at literally any time, and didn't' even ask for anything in return.

Huh.

Shit, by most definitions, that was selflessness.

The Princess chuckled. "For helping us, the Aeon Illuminate shall remember you as a friend."

I looked at her. "That... really isn't necessary."

"I insist."

Well, whatever.

I shrugged. "Alright then."

I frowned. "Oh yeah." I turned to Hall. "You're not quite finished just yet. There's still some Seraphim out in the galaxy, as well as some Order fanatics." I held my hand up, constructing a tiny hologram emitter. "Sadly, I only know where the former were at the time of the battle on Earth." I activated it, displaying a map of where the Seraphim were.

I sent a data package into their network, containing more detailed information.

Hall nodded. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

I stepped through the Warp Chasm, walking back onto Exapol's surface again.

Which was a lot more metallic than I remembered.

There was also a second moon in the sky.

Which I was fairly certain hadn't been there before.

I accessed the history logs-

Oh.

"My my Little1, you have been busy~"

"Creator-Mother."

Building a Metal Planet.

Annihilaser included.

Heh.

"Well, you have fun with that."

"Heading off again?"

"Yeah."

"Very well. Please bring gifts."

I laughed.

"Oh Little1, I fully intend to."

A modified re-entry pod shot forwards, taking me through the Teleporter.

The target, this time, was a yellow star of about 10% more massive than Sol.

Not that it mattered, since I wasn't going to that solar system.

My pod passed through the Teleporter.

I fell from orbit, my sensors already scanning everything they could.

I didn't like what I saw.

There were ships in orbit. One of them was in the effective range of my sensors.

I recognized it.

It was a pretty distinctive thing, really. It was big. It was really big.

It was a red saucer, in the shape of a semi-typical UFO.

It was a Hierarchy Command Ship.

Universe at War: Earth Assault.

I loved that game.

And now it seems that I would be living it.

I came closer to the ground, my sensors picking up more and more...

Like, for example, the fact that there's a Hierarchy Walker over there. Not far away, really. One of many.

It was in Washington.

There were a couple human vehicles around, mostly massed in a fortified area that was only barely holding off the Hierarchy troops that were swarming the place.

I'd arrived right at the beginning, it seems.

And... that was General Moore there.

There were a lot of paths I could take here.

I could go off on my own, build up power, and then crush the Hierarchy while grabbing as much technology as I could.

I could go in guns blazing, build up power, and then crush the Hierarchy while grabbing as much technology as I could.

I could go full stealth, build up power, and then crush the- you get the idea.

The question was; 'how stealthy did I want to be?'

A Wormhole opened up in front of my drop pod, the other part of the pair opened up directly above the Hierarchy Walker.

The answer was; 'not very'.

With a thunderous crash, my re-entry pod slammed into the Habitat Walker.

Now, it's very important to note that my re-entry pod was just a little shy of being a 30 metre wide, 50 meter long, almost solid block of metal, which was traveling at a couple kilometres a minute.

The result?

The Habitat Walker got goomba-stomped.

I crashed into and through it, sheer kinetic energy bring the entire Walker down to the ground with me, while also shattering much of its internal mechanisms.

A plasma explosion stripped much of the re-entry pod around me, though it did nothing to harm me.

I rose up, standing up from the ashes of the Habitat Walker, my full height of 45 meters only slightly less than half the size of the Walker itself, with my visual cloaking temporarily deactivated.

Plasma fire and smoke wreathed my form, and I stepped forwards, over the Habitat Walker.

My arm rose into the air, blue lasers striking out at the Saucers that had been hovering around the Habitat Walker, slicing them apart with ease.

Ah, to be hideously overpowered again.

Oh wait.

I never stopped.

An explosion washed off my shield, one of the Human's tanks firing upon me to no effect.

I turned around, walking off, heading over to where another Habitat walker was going to land. I was tracking it as it crashed down through the atmosphere.

Hello technology morsel #1.

My cloak activated, as did the rest of my stealth systems, Seraphim anti-gravity devices counteracting my weight so much that I didn't even leave footprints on the asphalt.

Behind me, mere seconds after my cloak activated, a swirling portal opened in the air, several technology morsel #2 Novus units emerging.

Over the slight hum of the Novus units, my auditory sensors picked up a single line from the General.

"What the fuck just happened?!"

69

Ah, stealth... How utterly bullshit and useful you are.

Objectives... What did I want?

Well, that was simple- I wanted the Hierarchy's technology. I wanted the Novus' technology. I wanted to know how the fuck the Masari did what they did.

The first was simple. Go hit those Command Ships up in orbit, raid their databases. Find Kamal Re'x, raid his mind for the knowledge, figure out what mechanism his psychic powers ran on, find Nufai... I wouldn't have any problem with stealing as much as I could from them, mostly because a very significant portion of the Hierarchy was a bunch of super-super-douchebags that regular super-douchebags could only aspire to be.

The second and third... not so easy. Mostly because the Novus and the Masari weren't a bag of dicks, and I would thus feel quite bad if I went around mind-raping and stealing from them.

Eh... even just the Hierarchy technology would prove a massive boon. I could live without the second and third, though they were still things that I wanted.

Other things that I wanted...

I wanted to make sure that as few lives were lost as possible.

Less simple. But possible.

Starting off; the Humans. The innocents caught in between the Hierarchy, the Novus, and the Masari. Keeping them safe would be rather... hmm.

Then; The Founder. The head of the Novus, who sacrificed his life in order to prevent the Home Portal from accidentally'ing Earth, and the Novus homeworld. Make sure the portal doesn't get rekt, no need for the Founder to sacrifice himself.

Third... Orlok. One of the few members of the Hierarchy that actually had a conscience. I'd... probably have to provoke him into rebelling against the Hierarchy first, but that wasn't exactly hard since he was already on his way to rebelling.

That... was pretty much the extent of what I wanted, yeah.

First things first...

I turned my attention to the Habitat Walker, which was just now hitting the ground, utterly wrecking an unfortunate building in the process.

I raised my arm up, the Protocrafters within activating. Less obvious than the bright green goo that was the masses of nanobots produced by Fabricators.

Really, the only indication of the Protocrafters being used at all was a distortion in the air, which could be reduced to the point of non-visibility by dialing the power down a little.

I scanned the Habitat Walker before I did anything, my sensors building me a very, very detailed map of the Habitat Walker, one so comprehensive that it stretched right down the sub-atomic level.

Alright. That's the computer, those are the controls, there was the controlers, that looked like the communications systems, in the center of it all was the reactor...

Yep.

Got what I need.

My Protocrafters, set on a very, very low intensity and thus using roughly a hundredth of their normal build power, began flicking around some atoms within the Habitat Walkers, ripping them apart and re-constructing them into things that were actually useful to me.

Like the component atoms of my nanobots.

Actually, I didn't need to use the Habitat Walker itself as fuel for my Nanobots.

Some of my internal systems, the ones that composed my Rapid Restoration Field, activated, what was effectively a miniaturized Quantum Teleporter dumping sub-atomic particles into the Habitat Walker. Easier catalyst for the Protocrafters.

The Novus were advancing forwards, heading towards the Habitat Walker. And though they were moving quickly, they wouldn't get there in time to prevent me from getting what I wanted.

One, two, three...

There.

Computers are mine now.

I quickly accessed them, downloading everything that I could in the few seconds I had before the Novus attacked- which was effectively all of it.

I ran a quick check over it; there wasn't much, with effectively nothing but tactical data on it- but that was enough to tell me what I needed to know.

Which Command Ship that Kamal Re'x was on.

Goody.

I sent a self-destruct command to my nanobots, watching them render themselves into unusable, unidentifiable, useless clouds of atoms.

Good.

Now then, to subvert that.

I turned around, beginning to head out of the city.

But first; to spread.

I re-visited one of my units; the Hub Network.

This was a world where strategic actions were decided over the course of days, not seconds and minutes. Consequently, that meant that the Hub Network would actually have some use here.

But since I was currently going stealthy, it needed an upgrade.

Mostly in the form of an absolutely stupid amount of stealth and cloaking, sufficient enough to hide the network from all but the most advanced of my sensors, incorporated into every aspect of the design, from the Cables to the Nodes to the Hub itself.

Mostly. It also needed a minor upgrade in incorporating the technology that I'd gotten from the Seraphim- by which, I meant that I had stuffed a Rapid Restoration Field, a moderately powerful Protocrafter, and a small, Seraphim-derived energy generator inside the Nodes.

It wasn't a particularly good one. It was the equivalent of 2.8~ units of Energy, which wasn't enough to run any of systems that actually required a significant amount of power -Which was literally every except the stealth-, but it was something.

And that something added up quickly when you were talking about the numbers needed to cover entire planets.

They'd never be able to run all of their systems alone- but I sincerely doubted that I'd come across a situation where I would need more than a couple dozen Nodes active at once, leaving the couple billion nodes still free to generate energy.

Coupled with a minor change to the programming of the Hub Network which would cause them to dig about 20 metres underground instead of the previous 5, they weren't going to be discovered any time soon.

I planted the first Hub a little ways away out of Washington.

I needed two things to subvert the Command Ships. One thing if I didn't feel like being particularly subtle about it.

First: a way to get up there without being detected.

Second: a way to get my nanobots onto the ships.

The second wasn't that hard.

And, honestly, neither was the first.

I spent a little bit of time working on a design for just that purpose- which ended with what was effectively a Gnat, except instead of having a gun, it had a Fabricator and a truly excessive amount of stealth and cloaking systems built onto it.

The over-powered gravitic drive meant that it was fully capable of heading into orbit under its own power, and the nature of the gravitic drive meant that it was basically undetectable anyway.

I built 18. Two for each one of the Command Ships.

They were, even now, making their way towards the Hierarchy's ships, nearly halfway there to the closest.

Soon... Soon, the Hierarchy's ships would be mine. As would all of their delicious, delicious technology.

After that?

Well, who knows...

70

One.

A pair of my modified Gnats reached the first Command Ship.

They flew close to the hull, examining it.

There.

They moved over, heading to the gap between two parts of the Command ship, a crevice that would hide the modified Gnats even more, and where the armour was relatively thin, thus also providing a spot for my nanobots to infiltrate the ship's systems.

The Fabricators activated, a small amount of nanites crawling out and heading into the armour, beginning to make their way through it.

And, ever so slowly, into the systems of the Command Ship.

My nanobots slowly spread throughout the Command Ship, tracing systems and power cables back through everywhere, finding every last piece of technology and spreading into it.

These Command Ships were big.

Very, very, very big.

They had to be, really. They were meant to hold an incredible amount of resources, plus all of the Hierarchy's other equipment, their factories, space for all their troops...

Really, calling them ships was perhaps wrong.

Mobile star-bases fit better. So utterly huge, containing so much...

Either way, this one was becoming mine.

Soon enough, so would the rest of them.

The last one would be the one that that Kamal Re'x was on.

Not because I was going after him last, but because his ship was on the other side of the planet, and thus the pair of modified Gnats would take the longest to get there.

Of course, 'longest' was a matter of relativity, as I was still talking time periods measured in less than two hours.

There we go.

I delicately seized control of the Command Ship's systems, my nanobots moving swiftly and shifting everything into my control.

Nobody on board noticed a thing.

As I intended.

There was no visible signs of the Command Ship falling under my control. There never would be until it was far, far, far too late.

The computers kept functioning, as did their sensors, and their factories, and all of their hardware. Technically speaking, they never lost control over the Command Ship- I was just able to overwrite them at any moment I chose.

Which wasn't just yet.

That could wait for later. When every ship was under my control, and the Hierarchy lost every method of inconveniencing me.

Until then, I had some databases to browse.

"We cannot be the only ones fighting the Hierarchy on this planet." The Founder stated. "That Habitat Walker was damaged in a way that the sentients could not achieve."

"We have an ally?" Mirabel wondered.

"We have an unknown." The Founder corrected. "We know nothing about them. We must attempt to gather information."

"Could they be the reason why the sentients are still alive?"

"It is possible." The Founder acknowledged. "But we cannot know for certain. Vertigo, I am assigning you with the task of locating and gathering information on the Hierarchy's enemy."

"I shall endeavour."

"What about the sentients of this planet?" Mirabel asked. "We should help them."

"They are inconsequential." The Founder stated. "Statistically speaking, they are already dead. Our programming has accepted this outcome, as should you."

"Yes sir. I'm just... tired of building tombs."

"We are all tired, Mirabel."

Hierarchy, Hierarchy, Hierarchy...

Hierarchy.

Hierarchy.

Holy shit.

I'm not even sure where to begin.

Do I begin with their technology?

Perhaps I should begin with their personality.

Or maybe with the sheer evil and cruelty that the Hierarchy exemplifies.

Actually yeah, that last one was a good place to begin.

Because holy shit the Hierarchy would fit right in to Warhammer 40k.

They were like some horrific combination between the Imperium of Man, Chaos, Dark Eldar, and the Tau, stripped off the good qualities of all four. Not that 'good qualities' meant much when referring to Chaos and Dark Eldar, but-

Getting off tropic.

The Hierarchy was a civilization that was built on cruelty. They partially divided into a caste system, with the Overseers at the top and the Lost Ones and slaves at the bottom.

Those who were in higher caste looked down upon those who were in lower caste, often to the extent that they regarded their lives as unimportant except for accomplishing their goals.

Promotion through the ranks happened based on cunning, competence, and cruelty. Political assassinations were common, often under the most minor pretence. Those who reached positions of power got it by climbing a mountain of their enemies' bodies, and they guarded it jealously. They were always looking to replace those above them, and were also always looking at those under them with suspicious eyes.

Kamal Re'x had earned his position as Underseer when, in an industrial 'accident' involving copious amounts of radioactive materials, teleporter malfunctions, a plasma shotgun or two detonating, and several poisons going missing, the Underseer of the time perished.

As did the 37 other possible candidates of promotion. Each of which in various different cases, most of them just disappearing, which had gained him the title 'The Abducter'.

Orlok the Eternal had earned his position as General of the Galactic Fleet by slogging through the ashes of a hundred dead worlds. He'd kept it by slogging through the ashes of a thousand more. He'd made himself so utterly indispensable to the army that, when the Overseers realised that his death would cause a massive, galaxy-wide, morale drop, they'd imprinted his consciousness into the war platform that he was still in today in order to keep him going.

Similar stories ran everywhere through the Hierarchy. Nufai, for example, was where he was today because of the many, many, many secrets he had learned and kept for himself, to be used at the most opportune moment for purposes of blackmail and extortion.

Honestly, I had no idea how this civilization hadn't collapsed in upon itself within the first five minutes.

Much less how it survived long enough to become an intergalactic power.

Though if what I had learned was any indication, copious amounts of brainwashing and indoctrination probably had a hand in it.

The Hierarchy...

Ugh.

No. I can't allow them to continue to exist. They've brought around far too much suffering, done far too many acts to be redeemable...

When I was done on this planet, I was going to cleanse the universe of them.

And with their technology, I could do it, too.


	8. Chapter 8: Logs 71-80

71

Hierarchy technology was advanced.

Surprisingly so- until you remembered that the Hierarchy was intergalactic.

Then it became expected.

Naturally, the first thing I went after was the Hierarchy's FTL.

Mostly because, while I was ridiculously powerful in effectively every other area, my FTL was much more... limited is a good word for it. Still capable, but limited.

The Hierarchy's FTL changed that.

Oh, did it change that~

I digress.

The Hierarchy's FTL was, not to put too fine a point on it, very interesting.

And very useful, too.

Effectively, it was an outcropping of Phase technology. A variation on it, but the difference between phasing and FTL was small indeed.

Whereas normal Phasing was shifting slightly out of phase, FTL was going all the way and moving their ships into a sort of 'unreality' where they were not entirely bound by normal physics.

What was interesting was the particulars of it. Throwing the minimal amount of energy required to shift their ships into 'phase space' (As the Hierarchy referred to it), netted a 'low' overall speed. Shunting more power into it increased the ship's speed further, as they dipped deeper and deeper into phase space.

Yes, that's right.

The Hierarchy's FTL runs on Tim Taylor Technology.

It was, unsurprisingly, energy intensive by the standards of the Hierarchy, even when going at comparatively low speeds. Still, these Command Ships averaged a speed of 30~ light years a day.

Fast, yes.

But it wasn't fast enough to travel between galaxies. It literally wasn't, as the ships would run out of fuel long before they made it across the gap.

Instead, to do so, the Hierarchy had massive sleeper ships, the vast majority of which was composed of fuel and power generation, plus some manufacturing, cloning, and, of course, cryostasis pods.

They travelled at velocities measured in hundreds of light years a day, and they had the advanced systems to support such an undertaking. The one that had brought the Hierarchy to this galaxy had travelled at 535.6~ light years a day for almost ten months, where it had been disassembled to fuel the beginning of the Hierarchy's mining operations.

The ship had been travelling at the same speed from beginning to end, not stopping for even a moment.

Even if I didn't have access to the records of where it came from, I could have figured it out from there.

10 months, 535.6~ light years a day. 163,000 light years in total.

The Hierarchy's home galaxy was the Large Magellanic Cloud.

A hundred thousand burning worlds.

A single intelligence existing across a trillion bodies.

Frightful power, which surpassed even their own.

And yet...

The balance was preserved. The deaths were naught. They were soon to be heightened.

Gods of gleaming gold stood aside machines of shining silver, a tarnished people working to recover behind them.

Change was coming.

And with it, retribution.

Queen Altea woke with a gasp.

And with her, the Masari drew their first breath in three thousand years.

It was almost a shame, really.

The Hierarchy was such an advanced species, and yet they wasted it on being so completely... disgusting. Revolting.

They had so much potential, yet they eagerly turned it to war.

Technology that surpassed my own in quite a few areas, novel ideas which were so interesting...

Wasted on the Hierarchy.

Take, for example, their teleportation.

They used it everywhere. Matter Conduits could transport entire Walkers with ease, while Reaper Drones were capable of harvesting resources and transporting them directly into orbit where the Command Ships were. They used it to bring their armies down to the ground, and the Monolith even used it as a primary means of travelling long distances. It was excellent, and something that I was going to be incorporating rather eagerly.

Mostly the form that the technology took in the Monolith.

Because it was ridiculously awesome.

The Monolith, despite not even being that big, was still capable of teleportation over the distances of dozens of kilometres, limited that much only because of problems in the Monolith itself.

The teleportation system had a minor feedback problem, which required the Monolith to temporarily lock down after teleporting, preventing it from firing or teleporting again quickly while the energy dissipated. The only reason it didn't drop out of the sky was because its hover systems were isolated moments before teleportation- but that isolation meant that while it kept hovering, it couldn't keep moving.

Something that the Hierarchy hadn't yet worked around.

Something that I solved with judicious application of Progenitor Super Science.

I was surprised by how scalable the system was, actually. The more volume it had to teleport, the more energy it required, the more feedback it generated. Same with how far it could take something, longer distance, more energy, more feedback.

For the Hierarchy, installing it on anything larger the Monolith increased the cost too much, and made the feedback too great, while they were unable to generate the energy required to use it on anything smaller.

Neither of which was a concern for me. I generated far more energy per unit of space, and I could channel the feedback into my storage systems or power generation set into reverse.

Which is why I immediately installed it into my Omega Commanders, providing me yet another method of travelling around quickly.

Most other uses of teleportation, I didn't have any immediate need for, which is why I saved them for later.

"My Queen-"

"I am aware, Lord Charos." Queen Altea spoke, looking over the city within Atlatea.

"Then... what is it?"

The Queen was silent.

"I know not." She confessed. "I cannot perceive it. Whatever it is. Something is hiding it from my sight. It might even be doing it itself." She turned to him, her regal features set into a frown. "We must prepare for it, Lord Charos."

Charos bowed. "And what of the Hierarchy?"

She turned away again. "We must face them. And this time, we must win. Prepare your warriors, Lord Charos. It is time for the Masari to march to war once again."

Charos rose to his full height. "Your will be done, my Queen."

72

The Hierarchy had a lot of other interesting technology.

Phase technology was, directly after teleportation and FTL, the one that I was most interested in. It bore several similarities to the Scrin's Phase technology, in that they accomplished the same effect and even did it in similar methods, but the particulars behind the mechanics of it differed.

The Hierarchy's version seemed a lot less limited, but it also came with greater drawbacks.

The Hierarchy could fit phasing devices on a lot of things, but those phasing devices, as one might have guessed since they weren't that different from the phasing devices used in FTL, required a lot of power. Lost Ones, Phase Tanks, and Monoliths all drew from a dedicated capacitor to power their phasing devices, which was replenished by energy generators on all three. Those generators weren't sufficient to keep up with the energy requirements of running the phasing devices, hence the limited time.

If I put a phase generator in my Omega Commanders, I could remain out of phase indefinitely. It would cost no insignificant amount of energy, even by my standards, but I could do it.

There was one problem with the Phase Generators. It was a small thing, really, one that only popped up when you were disengaging the phasing devices.

Namely, if you intersected with anything, you were going to have a bad time.

When coming out of phase, there wasn't much that protected the unit from merging with their surroundings. The Hierarchy used a rather costly energy field that displaced matter, which was sufficient enough to push lighter gasses out of the way, but it wasn't enough to push away heavier, stable and supported matter.

In other words, if you were standing inside of a brick wall when you de-phased, you were going to fuse with the brick wall.

That energy field presented about 25% of the costs involved in phasing. If it wasn't present, you would also fuse with air, which wasn't good for... pretty much anything, really. Thus, for the Hierarchy, the time that they could safely remain in phase also counted how much energy they had left when they were de-phasing. If they didn't have enough to power the field, then they were going to have a bad time.

Subsequently, that was also something I installed into my Omega Commander. A rather up-scaled and improved version, which, if I shoved enough energy into it, would displace just about anything.

I didn't fancy getting telefragged.

Aside from the Hierarchy's Phase technology, there honestly wasn't many more interesting things in their arsenal.

Well- that's wrong. There's plenty of interesting things, but very little of it is actually useful.

Mind Control devices, I already had. However, it functioned in a different method than the Scrin's, and it had different capabilities. It was a psychic manipulation device, except instead of overwhelming a mind with psychic energy and then forming a connection that allowed information to be extracted and actions to be controlled like the Scrin's, it left out the last part.

Honestly, it kind of sucked, being larger, more expensive, incapable of controlling as many targets, and not providing the ability to extract information. The only place that it succeeded the Scrin's mind control was (with a dedicated modification) in its capacity to take control of machines, which was quite possible to resist anyway.

Still things I was going to look at for later.

The Hierarchy had the capability to manipulate gravity, and they were fairly good at it, too. They were not, however, as good as the Seraphim, whose more advanced and just plain better technology I was already using.

They were quite good at manipulating and mutating genetics, but that wasn't particularly useful to me.

They were also rather fond of plasma and radiation weapons, but I could already do both with a lot less pollution involved.

Honestly, the only things I really cared about were the Saucer's Foo, and the Purifier.

The former because of the novelty, the latter because it's the only thing the Hierarchy have that can actually threaten me.

Foo was interesting stuff. It's a plasma ball that can damage and repair- though the latter function was far more limited than the game had indicated. Aside from that, it wasn't very useful.

The Purifier, on the other hand, is flatly one of the most dangerous technologies the Hierarchy has access to. It's a warhead that transforms matter into energy- and releases it explosively. A single use of the Purifier would scour clean several hundred kilometres, and typical Hierarchy plan of attack included using it as frequently as possible until everything was dead.

I had the location of the Hierarchy's Purifier. I fully intended to corrupt it as soon as possible, both to make it my own, and to deny it to the Hierarchy.

It would take a good three hours for my Hub Network to spread to it- but I didn't intend on waiting that long.

Hidden under excessive stealth, my Hub Network began constructing an Air Factory. Soon, it would construct a Pelican, which would ferry a Fabricator over to the area where the Purifier was hiding, and construct a Construction Pod.

God I loved being bullshit OP.

"The Hierarchy does not yet know of us." The Queen spoke out loud. "They do not even know of their other enemy. Only the machines... I sense a plot."

"Against the machines?" A Seer asked.

"So it would seem." She nodded. "This world still lives, yet the Purifier is present. The Humans fight valiantly, and have not been destroyed as countless others. A trap for the machines." She concluded.

"Shall we intervene?" Charos asked.

"No." Altea shook her head. "Not yet. Lives will be lost if we do so now. After this day has passed, then we shall do so."

"My Queen?"

"It is covering the world, even now. A shroud is spreading, more and more falling out of my sight, yet I cannot even perceive what is causing it. We cannot stop it. We never could have stopped it." Altea's eyes closed, yet she gazed upon the world with a sight unknown to all who were not Masari. "We should consider ourselves fortunate."

"Why, my Queen?" Lord Charos wondered.

It took her a moment to answer.

73

The Purifier is, I will admit, hidden rather well.

It's hidden in a valley currently, where the rock in every other direction kept visibility to a low.

There's a Hierarchy base here, but there isn't much in that base. Just an Arrival Site, a bunch of turrets, and a Matter Conduit that the Purifier was almost sitting on.

A quick escape, if the Purifier needed one.

Shame it wouldn't help.

My Construction Pod hissed open, releasing another Omega Commander, which immediately planted down a Hub Network where the grid from the first would complete.

Instead of building out in every direction, however, it began to spread towards the Hierarchy base, stealth and earth hiding it from detection.

The moment the area was covered, the Nodes' inbuilt Protocrafters activated, spinning a few nanites into existence into the Hierarchy buildings and units above them, which immediately began spreading throughout the systems.

Only a matter of time, now.

Saving as many lives as possible was, admittedly, an easy thing. If I put the slightest amount of effort in, then nobody would die.

But that would be overt, and I couldn't go overt just yet. Not while the Hierarchy still controlled their ships. Too many actions they could take, too many possible things the Hierarchy could do to fuck things up.

The good part was that, for most, the Hierarchy had entered a lull with the appearance of the Novus. They were fortifying and building their bases, instead of going on wanton slaughter.

By the time they fortified and went back to wanton slaughter, I myself would be prepared to act. Their ships would be corrupted, my Hub Network spread over the planet, and I would be prepared to end the war in a single, fell swoop.

I wouldn't need to hide because there would be no chance of the Hierarchy escaping, no chance of a warning going out. The rest of the Hierarchy wouldn't get an indication that I was coming their way, and that was what was important.

It was the difference between a quick, fast war, and a brutal, long, gruelling hunt as I tracked down each and every single part of the Hierarchy, making sure that it was purged from the universe.

I could do both. But one was so much easier than the other.

"Founder."

"Vertigo. Report."

"I was unable to identify or locate the entity responsible for destroying the Habitat Walker. Upon closer examination, I have come to believe that the entity has access to either advanced stealth or teleportation technology. Possibly both."

"Why?"

"The state of the Walker and the environment around it. Through my analysis, I have determined that the destruction of the Habitat Walker occurred within 10 seconds prior to our arrival. I was able to locate several impressions on the roads constructed by the Sentients, indicative of a large mass pressing down upon it. The tracks cease suddenly slightly away from the Walker, and my calculations indicate that the entity which created them would have vanished only moments before our arrival. I was able to acquire video footage of the entity which confirms this. The footage also shows the entity vanishing without a trace; thus, either teleportation or advanced stealth."

"I see. I am reassigning you to Mirabel's position, she requires your help to locate and attain the portal segments."

"Acknowledged."

Four hours passed slowly. But it was an important four hours, four hours in which my Hub Network spread across the world, four hours in which my modified Gnats slowly took control of the Command Ships in orbit.

I'd... done a little bit more construction than I'd initially intended, mostly in the form of underground bunkers hidden near every human settlement I found.

Which, of course, meant literally all of them.

In the case of most cities, my bunkers had been built up directly underneath them, with a number of teleportation devices scattered throughout the place, ready to evacuate the entire place underground on a moment's notice.

Subsequently, the bunkers were fully furnished, stocked with a ridiculous amount of supplies, and hidden under ridiculous amounts of stealth. Alongside a good hundred meters of earth and rock.

Safe spots for me to hide Humanity in when the Hierarchy came knocking.

Now...

Now I could act overtly. Now that they couldn't escape, now that they couldn't hurt anybody.

Time for some fun.

Novus... there, there, and there.

Masari... there. That giant ship sitting on the bottom of the ocean which was blindingly hard for me to miss. The only spot on the planet where my Hub Network wasn't present, the only spot that I hadn't spread it to.

My sensors couldn't pierce the ship's hull, in much the same way that my sensors hadn't been able to see anything other than the surface of the ACUs in Supreme Commander. Still, I could see it, and I was able to detect some things about it.

Namely the fact that it was online. It was outputting a very slight amount of heat, ultimately very little, but that heat was indicating that it was using energy.

I wasn't entirely sure what to think of that, but I suppose it didn't matter too much. I wasn't entirely sure what the base state for the Atlatea was, after all.

And either way, I had other things to do.

The Novus, led by Mirabel, Viktor, and Vertigo, were currently setting up around an area in Mongolia. I might have wondered what they were doing there, but the occasional quantum disturbance and the resulting appearance of one of the Novus' portal segments told me exactly what they were doing.

There was a Hierarchy base in the area, too. One that I'd corrupted within minutes of my Hub Network arriving in the region.

I honestly wasn't sure what I should do about either, either. Just disable it and get it out of the way to ease things up for the Novus, or destroy it and thus announce my presence to the Novus and the Hierarchy?

Eh...

Fuck it, let's go have some fun.

74

If you're going to have fun, you may as well go all out.

And since the Hierarchy basically couldn't stop me...

I may have went a little bit overboard, but, then again, why not?

Nonetheless, what I'd built had proven to be quite an engineering challenge.

"Energy signature detected."

"What is it?" Mirabel asked.

"Unknown. Signature has never been registered before." The robot responded.

"Hierarchy?"

"Signature vastly exceeds all known power sources."

"What?"

"The signature is- Warning, transpatial event detected."

"What?!"

Above a Habitat Walker, a wormhole opened.

What came out was... not what Mirabel was expecting.

She wasn't sure what she should have been expecting, but a giant, mechanical... worm wasn't it.

It charged out, moving with incredible speed and grace for something large enough to wrap around a Hierarchy Walker half a dozen times over- which is exactly what it did.

The Habitat Walker got off a single good shot at it, the powerful plasma burst washing off the worm's armour, before the worm ducked underneath the Walker and slipped around its legs, wrapping around them and preventing the Walker from moving.

The Habitat Walker certainly attempted to, but it didn't make any progress against the worm, restrained and kept still despite its struggling.

The head of the worm came up, opening and revealing a bright blue light hidden within, which shined down on the Habitat Walker.

In a flash of that same bright blue light, both the Habitat Walker and the metallic worm vanished.

For a few seconds, Mirabel just stared at the display.

"Viktor?" Mirabel asked. "What in the name of Lieta Novus just happened?"

I'd based it off the Scrin Mechapede, initially.

Of course, by the time I was done with it, nothing of the original remained.

A number of ridiculously powerful gravitic drives ripped straight out of the Ahwassa were implanted within its structure, sufficient enough the make it fly, and fly at rather impressive speeds at that. Systems from the Matter Conduit, made more efficient and down-scaled, were also installed, as was several teleportation devices and a few wormhole generators. The former gave it the ability to teleport other things that were close, and the latter two ensured that it would get there.

I'd given it a laser beam, not that it would ever use it, and some resource cores to power an internal factory, not that it would ever need it, just because I could.

The biggest challenge had been in making it as flexible as it was- which was something I achieved only because I made it longer instead of wider. The thin, segmented armour gave it an impressive ability to curl up, which would normally make it rather weak, but I'd offset that through the use of Quantum Locking, which made it that much more durable.

It was, naturally, hideously expensive and horrifically inefficient.

But it was a giant metal segmented flying teleporting wormhole-opening laser-beam-equipped construction-capable resource-generating stealthed worm, and that was enough of an excuse to make me actually use it where the Hierarchy was involved, where I didn't need to take things seriously.

Queen Altea opened her eyes. "It is time."

Behind her, Lord Charos nodded. "The Masari shall rise once again."

"Time for the gods to walk the land." Prince Zessus chuckled.

"Patience, my son." The Queen spoke. "This is not the time for arrogance."

"I would not call it arrogance, mother." He denied.

"Be that as it may, please restrain yourself." She gave him an amused look. "I know you are fond of your theatrics, but this is most certainly not the time for them."

He sighed. "Very well, mother."

She nodded. "Prepare yourselves. It is time for the Atlatea to see the light of day again."

Of course, now I had a pointless Habitat Walker. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do with it, though I did know what I was going to do with its crew.

I'd even purpose built a structure for them- which effectively amounted to nothing more than a containment area for an fuckload of temporal stasis pods.

Because that was what I decided I was going to do with them. Chuck them in stasis and decide what to do with them later.

The Walker, I was probably going to disassemble for scrap or something-

What the fuck?

Why is the Atlatea moving?

"Could this day get any stranger?" Mirabel wondered to herself.

"Alert: Energy signature detected the ocean."

"That was not an invitation!"

Viktor said something.

"Unknown. Signature does not match any known recorded."

Viktor said something else.

"Unlikely. Signature is distinctly different from the worm-construct seen before."

"Ugh." Mirabel leaned back into her chair. "Tell us when the Founder's come to a decision about it. We have more important things to worry about right now."

"Acknowledged."

The Masari are awake.

The Masari are awake.

Why are the Masari awake?

They shouldn't be awake. It wasn't nearly the time for them to be awake.

Their alarm system hadn't been tripped, I made sure of that.

Very, very, very sure.

And yet-

The Masari are awake.

Damn it, I do not like unexpected variables!

They could ruin...

Nothing, actually, since I didn't really have a plan aside from 'troll the Hierarchy' and 'make sure nobody dies'.

Even if they decided to be... let's say, problematic, they wouldn't get very far before I stomped them flat.

Hmm.

Hmmmm.

Right. Right, whatever, I could work with this.

I noted the Hierarchy's Command Ships moving over to the Masari's ship.

Preparing to fire upon them, I see.

Yeah, no.

I disabled their weapons.

A few moments later, I modified their computers to state that they couldn't fire because of their systems being jammed. Just because, really.

I wonder what Kamal thinks of that?

"Why isn't anything working, captain?!"

"Jamming, sir!" A Manipulator squeaked out in the face of Kamal Re'x's anger.

"Fix it!" Kamal shrieked.

"I'm trying, sir! The system refuses to do anything!"

"Enough, Kamal." Orlok interrupted. "This situation is no fault of his, and mindlessly screaming at the problem will not solve it."

"Silence yourself Orlok, or I will have you executed for treason!"

75

The Masari can move quickly, I'll give them that.

Dozens of transports were departing from the Atlatea, heading all over the region.

Presumably to establish bases.

There was one that wasn't following the other's patterns of movement, one that was heading out further away than the rest.

An interesting one.

One that I would be keeping an eye on.

Well, more of an eye than the others since I was monitoring them all.

Along with literally everything else on the planet.

Like General Randal Moore, and his group of resistance fighters, over there.

I wasn't entirely certain what the General was actually doing in that area, but whatever.

The Hierarchy was in the area, and that meant that, if I didn't intervene like I had been for every other human group attacking them, they would get killed in fairly short order.

Now then.

Do I send the worm, or do I try something different?

Hmm...

Decisions, decisions...

Actually-

I think I have an idea.

"Where the hell are all the civilians?" Randal Moore asked.

"Haven't seen a single person, sir." One of his soldiers responded over the radio.

"You think it was the aliens?" Asked another.

It might have been. And that was the worst part.

"We'll find them, private." He stated. "And kill all of the alien bastards too."

"Heads up, three o'clock!"

He leaned out of cover for a moment, seeing a trio of the small naked aliens.

He held up his hand, three fingers out.

A second passed, and he brought one down, followed by another and another.

A trio of rifle cracks sounded out, bullets burying themselves into the alien's heads, all three immediately dropping to the ground, dead.

"Get moving everybody, others will be on us in minutes!" The aliens were very coordinated. He'd lost a lot of good men finding that out.

He and his men rushed out of cover, heading across the street, all 25 moving in a cohesive group, checking around corners and covering each other as they moved.

So long as there wasn't too many, and it wasn't the really big aliens, they'd be able to handle themselves.

As if on cue, a distant roaring sound reached the General's ears.

"God damned dino-monkeys!" He rushed towards the side of the street, knowing all too well what the roar meant.

A few moments later, the Brute crashed into the middle of the street, roaring at the soldiers around it.

He raised his minigun- but didn't get the chance to fire before something smashed into the side of the Brute's head, sending it stumbling.

It caught itself quickly, raising its hand up to its head.

"The hell is that?" Randal asked, seeing a small silver... thing, embedded into the Brute's flesh.

The... thing seemed to activate, a bright blue light turning on, moments before the Brute itself vanished into thin air.

For a few moments, he just stared at where the Brute had been, before shaking himself.

He looked up, turning to face the other direction, looking for what had shot the Brute.

His eyes narrowed as he saw it, away on a distant rooftop, not particularly large but still visible.

It didn't look like one of the Novus.

Coloured in black and dark blue, this machine was also almost entirely hard angles, different from the organic shapes that the Novus used.

"Interesting." A light, synthesized, female voice came over his radio. "You're still fighting."

"Who the hell are you?" Randal asked.

"That is a good question. As for the answer... You may call me 'Drich'."

"You don't look like one of the iPod robots."

Laughter came from the radio. "Oh, I'm not. The Novus and I are quite different, see. Though we do share a similar goal..."

"Goal?"

"The destruction of the Hierarchy, General." The voice was suddenly flat. "And saving the people of this world."

There was a sigh. "Though that last part would be a lot more difficult for the Novus than it is for me."

Randal's eyes narrowed. "If your goal is to save people, then you wouldn't happen to know where the civilians of this city went, would you?"

"They're underground. Safe. Where I moved them the moment the Hierarchy came to this city." Drich responded. "Much the same as the people of any place the Hierarchy have attacked."

"What? How the hell did you move hundreds of thousands of people underground?"

"Through judicious application of teleportation." The machine suddenly vanished from the rooftop.

A light crackling noise from behind him had him turn around; to immediately find the machine suddenly present among his troops. "It was an easy thing, from there. But enough about me, General. Let's talk about you and yours."

Across the continent, at the same time as my chat with the General, the Masari transport that I'd been paying attention to finally arrived at its destination.

Namely; a Hierarchy base in the area. One that was relatively unguarded, though it did have an Assembly Walker present.

An Assembly Walker with some Mass Drivers, but... meh. The Masari could easily handle a pair of Mass Drivers, if they actually built up for it.

The transport, which I was sure was volumetrically impossible, let out a number of Masari, including some vehicles, both of the air and land variety, some infantry, a pair of Architects, and, last and also vindicating my decision to watch the transport, Prince Zessus.

Tall, handsome, powerful. He also had some very nice abs.

Rash, too. As evidenced when he immediately took most of the army with him and Leeroy Jenkins'd his way towards the Assembly Walker, with only the Architects and some infantry staying behind.

The Assembly Walker armed with Mass Drivers. The one that the Prince hadn't built up for.

God damn it.

Release the worm!

Below the Assembly Walker, a Wormhole tore open, immediately disgorging the worm, which, in turn, immediately began wrapping up the Assembly Walker.

I watched the Prince and his army as it did, noting the way that the prince smiled and most of the army was completely unsurprised.

Hmm? Did he actually have a strategy beyond Leeroy Jenkins'ing?

My worm finished wrapping up the Assembly Walker, and activated the Matter Conduit systems hidden within.

This time, however, I didn't also have it activate its own teleportation systems, leaving the worm behind when the Assembly Walker disappeared.

Zessus smirked, and walked up ahead of his army.

I couldn't see him doing anything, but...

"Tell me, can you speak?" The Prince asked.

My worm undulated, twisting and writhing in upon itself, the head rising up and opening.

The bright blue light, temporarily dimmed, shined down on Zessus' form.

"I would say that I could." I spoke through it. "Tell me, what do you want, Masari?"

76

"You know of us." His head tilted slightly to the side.

"I know of many things." I responded. My worm held completely still, not moving even an inch. "The Masari among them. But you haven't answered my question, Masari. What do you want?"

"To speak." He answered.

"Well, you seem to have gotten that." I quipped. "Why do you wish to speak, Masari?"

"To deliver an invitation." He stated.

Oh?

"Queen Altea, the ruler of the Masari people, wishes to speak with you."

Oh ho~

"Interesting." Should I... Hmm.

May as well. No particular reason not to, is there?

"Where?"

"Our City-Ship, the Atlatea." Zessus... straightened slightly as he said the name.

Last question. "When?"

Zessus looked up. "Our Queen is ready to speak to you right now."

I made the worm nod. "Very well. I will be outside of your City-Ship soon. The same entrance that your own transport left from."

A Wormhole opened up behind my worm, which disappeared into it a few moments later.

"You have a bone to pick with the Hierarchy." I spoke through my mech.

It was a fairly tricky thing, really.

The outer frame had been a bit tricky getting just the look I wanted, but in the end, I'd worked it out, combining a humanoid form with sharp angles and flat plates for an agile and lean aesthetic. The hands had been rather complex to design, but I'd been able to get them a full range of movement.

A Seraphim gravitic drive, coupled with a teleportation system torn out of the Monolith, gave it a surprising degree of mobility, while a number of purpose designed guns gave it a good degree of versatility. Its current 'weapon' was a beacon launcher, which, as the name suggested, shot beacons that allowed my teleportation devices to lock onto them and teleport them away.

Aside from the pilots of that first Walker that I'd goomba-stomped when I'd first arrived, I had yet to actually kill anything.

I didn't have any particular objection to it, I was just seeing how long I could go when I was holding back and only locking them all in stasis.

"And I am rather fond of screwing them over." I continued.

"Yeah, and?" General Moore asked.

"It must be hurting your resources mounting a resistance against them." It was. "And, to be frank, you're not accomplishing much against them anyway."

His eyes narrowed.

"How would you like to change that?"

"What."

"I'm not hurting for resources, General. And my technology is quite advanced, if I do say so myself." I stated. "I dislike the Hierarchy. And, as I said before, I do quite enjoy screwing them over."

My mech raised its gun, and shot at a Brute that had leapt onto the top of a building.

"What say you, General? Want to take a couple steps up the food chain?"

Meeting a queen, eh?

Well... How ostentatious do I feel like being?

Especially to the already ostentatious Masari...

Eh.

Not very.

Going to have to fluff up my Avatar a bit, however.

Not much. Just the incorporation of Seraphim and Hierarchy technologies, and maybe a minor change to the hairstyle.

Though I'd probably have to make a transport, since I couldn't see though the Atlatea's hull. Something to actually carry my Avatar inside.

Now, that could be rather ostentatious if I wanted it to be. Or it could end up practical, whilst still being aesthetically pleasing. Form over function, function over form, form following function...

Something sleek. A thin, fast, but still technologically advanced transport...

Yeah.

Yeah...

Less than 10 seconds after my meeting with Zessus, a Wormhole opened up in the airspace of the Atlatea, somewhat above and away from the port that Zessus' transport had used.

My transport shot out, a rather small thing by my standards, though it was still around the size of the Masari's transports. It followed my typical colour scheme, black, blue, with highlights of gold, but it was much more lean and angular than my other units. Less block, more triangular prism.

A portal on the Atlatea opened, dispatching a trio of Inquisitors- the design of which had looked absolutely ridiculous in the game and was no different in the flesh.

Two of the three circled around my transport while the third, wearing a slightly more ornate and polished armour, came to a stop in front of my transport.

He held his arms up, then twisted his hands around so his palms pointed towards himself, before spinning around and beginning to approach the opened portal again.

Not that hard to figure out.

I set the craft to follow after him, matching his speed.

The other two Inquisitors kept pace to the sides of my transport, neither of them making any hostile moves. Not that they'd get anywhere if they did, since I hadn't skipped out on durability for this transport. Nor would it matter anyway since the only thing remotely important on the transport was my Avatar, which wasn't actually important in any real way.

It was just a vessel for me to communicate with the Masari, after all.

The portal closed behind us as we passed through it, a second one opening up and revealing the inside of the Atlatea.

Ah...

Now, that's a sight to see.

Lots of greenery alongside Masari architecture, filled furthermore with a lot of strange energies that my sensors were picking up.

Interesting- and simultaneously beautiful.

The Inquisitors lead my transport to a building with an opened roof, one which bore a resemblance to the Flight Machina, though it was larger and also more ornate.

And... yes, that was Queen Altea inside. Interesting that she'd be standing out in the open, so to speak. Was she not afraid of me trying something, or was she confident in her ability to handle it if I did?

Moot point, I suppose.

My transport landed on the ground softly, spinning around so that the back end faced Queen Altea.

With a slight electric sizzling, the transport's teleporter activated, my Avatar appearing just outside at its base.

I greeted the Queen with a smile and a respectful nod. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Queen Altea."

77

She was quite tall, something common among the Masari. Zessus, and those in his army, had also been quite tall, but I'd been looking down on them through the eyes of my worm.

Here, however, I had to look up.

Not that it particularly mattered.

"My name is Drich."

She gave a sort of half bow, before straightening back up and smiling slightly. "Welcome to Atlatea," There was a very slight pause before she continued. "Drich."

She stepped to the side, gesturing behind her. "If you would follow me?"

I nodded, walking forwards and moving beside her as she headed off.

As she walked, I couldn't help but notice that her dress wasn't actually touching the floor. Rather, it was floating slightly off the ground, an energy that I could perceive but didn't know of infused into the fabric.

Interesting.

"Come again?"

"I doubt you need me to explain it twice, General." I stated.

"You want to help us just to mess with the aliens?"

"Aptly put."

Really, I could crush everything and everyone on this planet in a few minutes if I wanted to. The continued existence Kamal Re'x's operation was only because I allowed it.

And to quote a certain space cuttlefish, they would end when I demanded it.

"In fact, I'll even sweeten the deal for you." More opportunities to fuck with the Hierarchy?

Sure.

"I'll help you with whatever you're here for first."

I'd never turn that down.

"Afterwards, you can decide if you want to accept or not."

The Queen led my Avatar to a rather ornate structure. A large one, filled with even more energies than the rest of the Atlatea.

One that housed her throne-room, I later found out.

We didn't go into her throne-room, however. We passed that and went a bit higher, into an observatory that overlooked the inside of the Atlatea. The entire city was visible from the inside, such was its height.

Inside the Observatory was a large, round table, two chairs sitting on opposite sides, both of which where large, ornate, and filled with the strange energies that seemed to permeate all Masari items.

Neither of us took them. The Queen moved right over to the window, and I followed, enjoying the sight and aesthetic of the Atlatea.

"Thank you for coming." The Queen spoke, looking over the city with a calm, slight smile on her face.

"It is no trouble for me." I dismissed. "Your son told me you wished to speak with me?"

"Indeed..." She murmured. "But before I do, I must also thank you for disabling the Hierarchy's orbital weapons. If you hadn't, the Atlatea would have been severely damaged."

"It was no problem." It really wasn't.

"If I may, I have a question." She looked at me for a moment. I only nodded. "Why haven't you destroyed the Hierarchy yet? I know that it is within your capacity, yet you refrain."

At some point, I'd have to find out just how much the Queen knew. Because she was currently doing this thing where she was knowing things that she perhaps shouldn't.

"A good question." I nodded. "But also one that doesn't have any singular answer." I looked up for a moment.

Why didn't I?

"Because I don't feel like it, for one." I began. "The measures I have taken ensure that there is nothing the Hierarchy can do to cause any damage. They cannot threaten the lives of the Humans, because I have already built places where they will be safe. Their Purifier, though they do not yet know it, will not fire under any circumstances. They cannot warn the other parts of the Hierarchy in this galaxy, because their ships are under my control. Knowing all this, I do not bother to destroy them, because there is no reason to." I shook my head. "Though at some point I suspect I'll tire of their continued activity and finally put a stop to it."

The Queen nodded, her expression betraying nothing.

"What would you do, Queen Altea, if you were in my position? Knowing that the Hierarchy could be disabled in but a moment, that there was nothing they could do to stop you?" I was mildly curious.

The Queen was silent for several seconds.

"I know not." She admitted. "Though my actions would no doubt be different from yours. Mine would be tainted with the thoughts and memories of the atrocities that the Hierarchy brought upon the Masari."

I gave a considering hum.

A silence passed between us.

"You plan to disassemble them, yes? To remove the Hierarchy, all of it."

"I want to say that I'm surprised that you know, but, for some reason, I'm really not." I answered. "And yes. The Hierarchy exists only as a force of hatred and malevolence. It is a cancer upon the universe that I intend to excise."

And 'excise' was very accurate in this case.

"Why?" Queen Altea asked.

"I require a reason beyond the destruction that they so eagerly perform?" I asked in turn. "To make sure that they never destroy another sophont again?"

She inclined her head. "That is reason enough." She agreed.

Her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath. "To succeed where we failed... To finally undo the mistake of the gods."

"Gods." I frowned. "What defines godhood, Queen Altea? Knowledge, wisdom?" I held my hand up in the air. "The power to create matter and energy from nothing?" Electricity arced between my fingers, supplied by the generator within my Avatar. "Foresight? Mystical abilities?" I was rather lacking in the latter, but I had my fair share. "Worship?" If I'd been around 4000~ years ago, they'd have worshiped me as a god too.

"Gods, we are not." The Queen opened her eyes. "That was arrogance alone. If we were gods, the Hierarchy would never have been able to destroy us. If we were gods, our civilization would have never been destroyed. If we were gods, we would have never been sent running like cowards for our own survival. If we were gods, we would have been able to correct our mistake on our own. You are more deserving of the title of godhood than we."

"Hardly." I scoffed. "I'm not a god. Never will be. I'm just... a ghost in a machine."

"Humility. Another thing we did not possess." She sighed. "But, enough about false gods and fake titles. There is something else I wish to ask of you."

"Yes?"

78

"My sight is limited." She started. "With your involvement, it became cloudier still."

"I'm... sorry?"

"Do not be." She shook her head. "Though I am occasionally gifted with visions of the future, I have made it a point to not follow them too closely."

I hadn't realised that she was precognitive.

"It is..." A slight frown crossed her face. "Difficult to describe in words. With my fellows, the abilities that we all share allow us to explain concepts and ideas easily, but..." She trailed off. "You are not Masari. You are not organic, either, which makes it impossible for me to compensate."

"A psychic connection, yes?" I asked.

"In crude terms." The Queen nodded.

I held up my hand.

"That will not be a problem, then." The fake skin and false muscles dissolved, transforming into a mass of blue nanite goo. The metal skeleton underneath also began to break apart, shifting to incorporate a very, very, very small Manipulator Device.

"There comes a point on technological advancement when the words 'organic' and 'mechanical' cease to have any meaning. I passed that point a long time ago." My hand reformed, and the Manipulator Device hidden within activated, streams of psychic energy beginning to gather around my hand.

I held it out to her, and she took it, clasping her hand with mine.

Strings of psychic power touched against mine, forming a connection.

One that was intended by both parties. Unlike what I had achieved by force with Seth-Iavow.

"Your mind... is more vast than I had ever realised." The Queen murmured.

I grinned.

"Yours is also a sight to see, Queen Altea."

Strings. Connections. Altea was connected not just to me, but also to the Atlatea, drawing strength from it and shaping its energies. Her clothes resonated with her energies, making them very uniquely hers, and also giving them properties that no normal cloth would have.

She, in turn, could feel my own mind. And how it stretched across this entire planet, existing in every single one of my units.

But this was only because we were each allowing it. If I didn't want her to see anything, she wouldn't. If she didn't want me to see anything, I wouldn't. Not without force, at any rate.

She shook herself, focusing. "As I intended to say; my sight is limited. The future is cloudy, and uncertain. But, not very often, I am gifted with a vision of the future, much further and usually much more accurate than I could otherwise achieve."

A memory flowed along the connection.

"I saw the Hierarchy's collapse." She frowned. "No, I saw the Hierarchy's removal. The word 'collapse' holds implications, which are not true."

"Death. But there is no death, other than the death of an ideology." I finished for her.

"Indeed. Something that I could not perceive would destroy the Hierarchy without taking more than a handful of lives." She stated.

"Me." What she couldn't perceive, what I was currently doing when I captured instead of killed, the coincidence of my arrival...

"So it would seem." She agreed. "You are the only being capable of it. And if what I saw were to come to pass, it must be you- or, at the very least, another like you." Her tongue clicked. "If it comes to pass, that is."

"The act of knowing the future itself changes the future." I noted.

"Indeed." She nodded.

Her head tilted to the side as she gave a considering hum.

"Your existence is balanced." She noted.

"And that means?"

"Before our destruction, we considered it our duty to maintain the balance of the universe."

"More arrogance?"

"Yes." She straightened up again. "We encouraged life and growth, and sought to remove stagnation wherever we found it. We would ensure that there would never be too much death, nor so much life that an ecosystem couldn't maintain itself. Through this, the balance would be maintained. The arrogance comes from the assumption that our actions had any meaning to the vastness of the universe, when we ourselves existed in only a single, tiny galaxy." She shook her head. "I digress. The Masari created the Hierarchy, and we were destroyed by it. In our weakness, our inability to stop the Hierarchy, we left open the doors through which countless species could suffer."

Her eyes locked with mine, the pain and sorrow held within telling me just as much as the connection between us.

"It is only appropriate that we atone for our sin." She finished.

My head tilted to the side. "And how do you intend to do that, Queen Altea?"

"By offering what we can." She stated. "Meagre as it may be, to you."

Hmm?

"Your existence is balanced. If you wish, I shall make our knowledge available to you."

I blinked. "You're serious." I felt the seriousness.

"I am. Our crime was great. The suffering we brought, immense. To offer you this knowledge is only the beginning of our atonement."

I stared at her for a few moments.

"And what will the other Masari think of this?"

She gave a slight smile. "Some may protest. But most will agree with my decision."

Slowly, I nodded. "Very well."

That...

Unexpected.

But not something I would deny.

"I'll accept."

Queen Altea nodded, before disentangling her fingers with mine and letting go of my hand.

The psychic connection cut off as she did, my Manipulator Device shutting off only a moment later.

"To the library, then." She turned around. "If you'll follow me?"

"Just like that?" I asked, stepping forwards beside her.

"More or less." She nodded. "You are in a unique position. You are already balanced. Something that can take years for most beings to purposefully achieve, you exist in as a normal state." She glanced at me. "You also already have quite the grasp of psychic abilities, which will speed the rate at which you would learn."

She looked forwards, her head tilting to the side. "And, forgive me if I am wrong, but your mind can accelerate much faster, can it not?"

I grinned. "Yes."

"To what limit?"

"Good question." I stared up at the ceiling for a moment. "I have never gone to the limit yet, but mathematically speaking... around a couple nonillion times faster."

She didn't stumble. Far too graceful for that- but it was a very near thing. 

79

The library.

It was, perhaps, not aptly named. Certainly, it contained many, many books, as well as other items of interest, but it was less of a library and more of a storage place for knowledge ages old.

It was, I found out, the Queen's personal library. Wherein the original copies of much of the Masari's ancient lore books were held, each one in perfect condition.

There were copies of these books in the Knowledge Vaults throughout the Atlatea, yes, but here were the originals.

I was fairly certain that the inside of the library was spatially impossible, too. Simply walking through the doors had done some odd things to my connection with the Avatar, like it was further away than it should have been.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was.

"First..." The Queen held her hand up, a book floating off the shelves and into her hand. "Is the understanding of the nature of our power."

We came to a stop at an alcove, which had two large, cushioned seats, a table in between them.

Altea gently placed the book on the table, before gracefully sliding into the seat herself.

I took a seat opposite of her, and she took my hand a few moments later.

The Manipulator Device within activated; and the psychic connection formed a few moments later.

Thoughts and context began to flow through the link while the Queen explained. "Balance is the key to our power. Two energies, two modes of thought, must be merged and equivalent to each other in order for us to use our abilities. We refer to these as Light and Dark."

The book opened on its own, a small, golden light appearing above it.

"Light grants us greater sight, a burning aura, and the power of flight." She began. The page turned, and the golden light shifted into a black cloud. "Dark grants us speed, allows us to slow our enemies, and provides us with a shield." The page flipped again, and this time, both the dark cloud and golden light appeared together. "Both are potent individually. But it is only when they come together that we can use our full power." The golden light and the dark cloud began orbiting each other. "Balance." She finished.

The page turned again, this time showing an image of a container which shifted from white to black and from black to white. "Balancing this energies is not normally an easy task. Light comes naturally from a focus on others, pride in community, and companionship. Dark comes naturally from a focus on oneself, pride in one's own capacity, and isolation." She quirked a smile. "Most Masari will lean towards the latter. To balance ourselves out, we eventually learn how to call Light or Dark into existence on purpose."

The page turned, showing a dark grey humanoid figure. After a few moments, a white sphere appeared within, which began lightening the dark grey of the figure. "Caution, of course, is necessary." She continued. "Our bodies can only handle so much energy safely, and surpassing that limit risks the life of those of us who do." She warned. "Still, there is reward in those who achieve balance. Or, at least, those who come close to it."

My head tilted to the side.

"Few and far between are those who perfectly balance Light and Dark." She answered my unspoken question. "You are not among them. You lean towards Light." She frowned. "Ah... forgive me, I gave the wrong impression before when I referred to you as balanced. What I meant to say was that you were surprisingly balanced, among the standards of beings that do not purposefully balance themselves." She gave a considering hum. "Much like the Humans of this planet, really."

Well damn, there went that good feeling.

Still, it made a not insignificant amount of sense, so I nodded.

The book closed, and moved off to the side of the table.

"Now, that was just the beginning." She explained. "If I continued to explain it this way, it would take us years to go through it all."

My head tilted to the side again.

Through our connection, I could glimpse what she was planning.

And I approved.

"For the Masari, to pass the knowledge from mind to mind is simply not a workable solution. Our minds are incapable of handling the decades' worth of memories involved being passed all at once." She frowned. "But you... That is no problem for you, is it?"

"No." I'd taken entire lifetimes worth of information from the Seraphim.

She nodded. "I didn't think so."

Her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath. "I would tell you to prepare yourself, but it is more likely that I will be the one who is unprepared."

The psychic connection widened.

A moment later came the memories.

I dissected them as they came in, my mind speeding up as I analysed them.

They were interesting, to be sure. Altea's memories, thoughts, and perspective as she trained to balance herself.

From the start, when she was assigned a teacher, a tall, broad-shouldered man even among the Masari, also incidentally one of the few who, as Altea had said, had managed to perfectly balance themselves.

Young, then. Arrogant, also; fully believing in the idea that the Masari were gods. Still, even back then she had been powerful and skilled.

Altea had been blessed with the ability to handle energies the likes of which most Masari would never be capable of. The skill and control with which she could wield those energies were born out of endless practise, day after day of honing her mind and body. The former trait had been something that her son also had, with his sheer capacity exceeding even that of the Queen.

The memories were not clean-cut. Flashes of her life related to her training came with them, disconnected, confusing things that were little more than half-forgotten thoughts. Useless to me.

Still, there was a moment where the memories took on a darker shift, coinciding with a sudden lack of gleaming, golden spires, and the sudden presence of what I recognized as the interior of the Atlatea.

The Hierarchy, I realised.

And the Masari exile.

Hmm.

Memories. Capabilities. This was not like the technology that I so eagerly copied.

This would take me time. Time to learn, time to test, time to master.

But time was one thing I had in spades.

80

The basics, really. Her goal, as I could sense, was to teach me how to manipulate the energies that the Masari wielded. That was the important part, utterly indispensable.

It was the most time-consuming part of the Masari's training. Learning how to manipulate the energies, and then advancing onwards to learn how to manipulate with speed and precision.

It was through that manipulation that the Masari accomplished everything else. Manipulating energies in specific ways to accomplish specific effects, which was much less time consuming and usually much less dangerous.

Once I learned how to accomplish it, then everything else could come afterwards.

She sat back with a sigh, her fingers pressing into her temples as she attempted to sooth a forming headache.

That... had not been an entirely pleasant experience.

Still, it had nevertheless worked.

A feeling of forming Dark energies drew her attention, and she opened her eyes to find her companion now holding her hands apart, a shifting black and purple ball suspended in the air.

Her lips pursed and her brow scrunched as she examined it.

"For you, it has only been a few seconds." Drich looked up, bright blue eyes locking with her own. "But for me, I've been sitting here for several hours already."

She nodded, accepting the explanation.

Drich's hands moved further apart, the ball of Dark energy shifting over to the left hand even while Light energy formed above the right.

Altea had to wonder how fast Drich's mind was moving at this moment.

"Understanding." There was a note of interest in her companion's voice. "That is the key. With these energies, you are limited only by your own understanding of things, and by how much you can wield at once."

"Indeed." She sat straighter, holding her own hands out. Mirroring Drich, Altea formed two orbs of energy, Dark above her right hand and Light above her left.

"But that isn't the end of it, is it?" Drich asked.

"The universe hides nothing from those who see clearly." An old lesson. The oldest, in fact. "That is why we seek balance. In balancing Light and Dark, we illuminate ourselves. We gain understanding." She frowned. "Or, rather, we gain insight."

"And that insight leads to understanding." Drich nodded. "Through the observation of a phenomenon, you can learn about it. As you learn about it, you can uncover more and more about it. As you uncover more and more, you begin to piece together how it works. A considerable degree of intuitive aptitude."

"The greatest gift."

"Is that why you know English?" Drich questioned.

"If English is the language you are speaking, then... partially." She shook her head. "The Masari have had no need for languages for millennia. Our species, once we gained insight, also gained the ability to understand others regardless of language barriers."

"An entire species of omniglots." Drich gave an amused chuckle. "Will that also happen to me?"

"It should." She nodded. "The Masari have taught others our abilities, though they were few and far between, and all received the same."

Drich nodded.

A moment later, both orbs vanished as Drich's hands cupped together. "Understanding..."

A golden light bloomed, which quickly dimmed into a faint shine.

"You draw matter and energy from the Atlatea, don't you?" Drich asked.

"Indeed." She nodded. "It is tiring to create matter and energy on large scales, and we are also unable to store it within our own bodies. The Matter Engines of the Atlatea serve to create, gather, and store those energies automatically, allowing us a great deal more freedom in our abilities."

"I see." The golden light intensified for a moment, and Altea could make out a small blue blur within.

One that rapidly began to grow, forming in a mass of shifting blue goo, much the same as the substance that Drich's hand had briefly turned into.

It had scantly been minutes, and yet Drich was already capable of manipulating matter to such a degree.

It had scantly been minutes- for her.

How long had it been for Drich?

God damn this was difficult.

The Queen's memories had made it seem so easy, but it wasn't.

She had given me her experiences, her memories. But her experience didn't translate directly into mine, as we simply different.

It was useful- don't get me wrong. But it was a lot harder than it looked.

I wasn't drawing from my stores of Matter and Energy. Here, in this particular case, I was creating it on the go. That probably contributed a significant part of the difficulty, but it was a test of capability.

I shuffled around a few atoms, slowly forming them into another nanobot, getting used to the feeling, trying to increase my speed and precision.

I was seeing the world thousands of times slower than it normally was. That number was getting lower as I slowly figured it out for myself, but in the minutes of actual time, I had already been here for days.

I hadn't expected to master it instantly, certainly, but I also hadn't expected it to be this difficult. Doing as the Queen had done and balancing myself out had been easy, comparatively speaking, but this...

Not so.

Quite long, she didn't doubt.

A knock rang throughout the room, gaining the attention of both herself and her companion.

On the far side of the room, one of her handmaidens opened the door to her library. "My apologies for intruding, Queen Altea, but Lord Charos wishes to speak with you."

Altea nodded. "Thank you Mathea, I will be along shortly."

Mathea nodded, bowing and closing the door.

She turned back to her companion, inclining her head. "My apologies, but I am needed elsewhere."

Drich's hand swept through the air. "It happens. Don't worry about it."

Altea nodded, before standing up. "I am not sure how long I will be needed. If you wish to read any of the books in my library, you may." She paused for a moment, before indicating a shelf to her left. "This one contains much of the knowledge of the various techniques that can we can perform. If you wish to expand your knowledge further, this shelf will aid you."

Drich's eyes flicked to the shelf, a glimmer of interest within. "Thank you, Queen Altea."  
Altea gave one last nod, before sweeping out of the room.


	9. Chapter 9: Logs 81-90

81

"Yes, Charos?"

"The machines, my Queen." He answered. "One of their transports is moving towards the Atlatea."

She nodded. "Make preparations to host them. I will receive them here."

Charos nodded.

Altea gave a soft sigh, before addressing him. "Speak your mind, Charos."

"Are you sure that was wise, my Queen?"

She looked away for a moment. "I stand by my decision." She looked back at him. "It isn't like Drich is the first person we've taught."

"Still, after the Hierarchy..."

"She isn't the Hierarchy." She stated. "If she was, we would all already be dead- or worse. This way, at least, I would be able to see what she was truly like. I was not disappointed."

A sigh came from Charos. "Very well, my Queen. But I do want to let you know that I do not feel this was the right course of action."

"You worry too much, Charos."

"And you do not worry enough."

When the Queen came back, she met the sight of my Avatar.

Several dozen of them.

"Multitasking." I answered her unspoken question. "It's actually sped my progress quite a bit."

Shadow Cloning my way to mastery. Only there was no dispersal and I was picking up everything simultaneously.

Which... really did help a lot, not going to lie.

Several of my Avatars were reading books, while several more were practising wielding energy- Light, Dark, both, it was all the same, really.

She blinked. Her mouth opened, and I pre-empted her again.

"I can run as many threads of consciousness as I want. As many as I have the processing power for, anyway." Which really meant any arbitrarily large number.

She shook her head, before walking over. My Avatars moved out of the way, making room for her.

Daintily, she sat down, sliding back into her previous position.

"So, the Novus." I began. "They're coming here."

"Is that the name of the machines?"

I nodded. "They're an interesting lot. How much do you know of them?"

"Regrettably little."

I smiled. "Well, that's something easy to fix."

I held out my hand, a mass of nanites shimmering into existence a few moments later. "The come from a world that was named Lieta Novus."

"Was?"

"And still is, I suppose." The mass of nanites shifted, forming a miniature replica of Lieta Novus as I had seen it in the Hierarchy's databases. "It was inhabited by a species known as the Quyion. A peaceful group, who possessed quite a bit of advanced technology."

"There was a tragedy involved, wasn't there?"

I nodded. Several tiny red saucers appeared around the replica of Lieta Novus. "The Hierarchy, to be exact. The Quyion, being peaceful and isolationist, were shortly wiped out, their planet harvested for resources."

The replica shrank, turning from a green, silver, and blue sphere into a cratered grey, red, and molten one.

The Queen inclined her head. Respect for the dead, sad, regretting the Hierarchy...

"Before their destruction, the Quyion had sent out an explorer. This being, known as the Founder, came back to Lieta Novus and saw the destruction that had been wrecked. He, true to his name, founded the Novus, who would then go on to be a thorn in the Hierarchy's side for decades."

The nanite mass shifted, forming an image of the Founder.

"He would also recover the genetic material of one of the Quyion, and clone an individual. This woman is known as Mirabel." The nanite mass shifted again, briefly taking the appearance of the surprisingly human appearing alien.

Honestly, both the Masari and the Quyion holding such a great deal of resemblance to Humanity? The Masari were visually distinguished only by their height, and Mirabel... kind of wasn't.

"She has died several times already. Each time, she has been cloned again using the same genetic material that the Novus originally recovered, which has caused their supply to slowly dwindle. Because of this, Viktor, a suit of powered armour, was created to protect her." The nanites reshaped, forming an image of the sapient mech.

"The only organic among a race of machines..." The Queen considered.

"Indeed." I nodded. "She is, thus, the most empathic of the Novus. While the Novus focus only on destroying the Hierarchy, Mirabel is sympathetic of the lives of the beings that the Hierarchy causes to suffer." I shook my head. "The Novus never succeeded in saving the sapient populations of the planets they travelled to. In the beginning, they instead built tombs for the species that died. They re-wrote their program when the tombs became too many."

Her head lowered, a soft sigh coming from her. "Such suffering we caused."

"Such suffering the Hierarchy caused." I stared at her. "The Masari cannot be blamed for getting wiped out and having a species they saved going on to become tyrants of the highest order."

I shook my head. "Anyway- That's the basics of the Novus. If they're sending a transport here, that's probably because Mirabel managed to convince the Founder to begin interacting with the Masari." Probably nothing, I've been listening in on their communications. Mirabel herself was on that ship, after all. "You'd likely find yourself another ally against the Hierarchy. Though, chances are that will shortly become a moot point."

"You plan on acting, soon?" She asked.

"At some point or another." I shrugged. "I intend to actually finish learning from you before I do so. After that... Well, depending on how fast your species can cross the stars, the Hierarchy will cease to exist in the next eight months or so."

"Eight... months?" She asked. "The Hierarchy spans several galaxies."

"Yes. Hence why I said eight months, instead of a few weeks."

She stared at me.

"As it is now, it will take me three months for a ship to arrive at their home galaxy." I deliberately misunderstood her look. "Seven or so to check every other galaxy they could have gone to. A couple weeks to purge them all of the Hierarchy's presence."

Her head tilted to the side as she stared at me, an inscrutable look on her face. "I'm... not entirely..." She shook her head. "I would ask if you understand the scale that you are working on, but... I would wager that you understand better than I."

I laughed. "You haven't seen me when I really get going, Queen Altea." I smiled. "Unless the Hierarchy have run much further than I ever expected, then I will be done in less than a year. That, I can assure you."

The Progenitors had created the Commanders as a weapon to wage a galactic war- and win.

I was simply... taking it a step higher.

82

Supplies, it turned out to be.

General Moore and his men had come for food, drink, and ammo. With a minor bonus of killing as many of the Hierarchy as they could if it became necessary.

Or even if it wasn't necessary and the Hierarchy was just around.

"These... are surprisingly easy to move around in." One of the human soldiers stated.

"Naturally." My mech stated. "This is incredibly advanced technology by most standards. Even the Novus would be hard-pressed to accomplish this." They flat out couldn't accomplish what I did.

"And you're just handing this shit out to us?" Another one asked.

"I'm lending it to you for the duration of the Hierarchy's existence on this planet." I stated. "When they're gone, I'll take them back. Don't get too attached."

Some of them were rather... hesitant. But all of them realised that if I wanted them dead, they'd all already be dead.

As an aside, the General had a lot of men under his command. There were easily 250 of them, and most of them were soldiers.

Some were engineers, who were tending to the vehicles that the General had managed to sneak out, but not one of them was a civilian.

"Anywho, I packed a bunch of goodies into those suits." Teleporters, shield generators, anti-grav, flight, a plasma blade... Enough tech that each of them could 1v1 a Walker and expect to win. "Learn to use them, and you can expect your combat efficiency to go up by leaps and bounds. Take it or leave it, it's up to you. Either way, have fun~"

My Mech teleported away, disappearing with a slight crackle.

"I would have to see it to believe it." She shook her head.

I shrugged. "That's easy enough."

She was silent for a few moments, staring at me.

She sighed, shaking her head. "It will take the machines- the Novus," She corrected herself. "Some time to arrive."

"I can expedite matters if you wish?"

She gave a considering hum, before slowly nodded. "If it would not be too much trouble for you?"

"Not particularly."

"Hello, Novus." A voice came from the speakers of her transport. Light, feminine, friendly.

It was not one that she recognized.

"Interesting that you're coming to this ship." It continued.

"Viktor, transmit." A garbled speech from her protector met her words.

Mirabel looked up. "Who are you?"

"I go by the name 'Drich'." The voice responded. "And you are..?"

"Mirabel..." She replied cautiously.

"You don't need to sound so suspicious, you know." There was a light laughter. "I'm only here to help. You want to meet the Masari, I can expedite this matter."

"Masari?"

"The species that created the ship you're heading towards." Drich appeared to have heard her. "And, incidentally, a species that rather dislikes the Hierarchy." There was a clicking sound. "Well, that's understating things. The Masari hate the Hierarchy more than you do."

"What?" There was a history there, she was certain.

"Something to discuss later. When all parties are present." Again, there was a clicking sound. "If you continue at the speed you're going, you'll take quite a bit of time to get here. Like I said, I can expedite matters. If, of course, you accept?"

And now she was confused. "And how you would you-"

"Warning, transpatial event detected."

The display in front of her changed, Viktor already predicting what she wanted and showing her before she even needed to ask.

A wormhole, different from the Quantum Portals that the Novus used, opened up in front and some way to the side of the Novus Transport.

The source of the transpatial events. And the worm.

Oh. Oh.

"That Wormhole will take you to the outside of this ship. A scant few minutes away. Though it won't last forever, it will last long enough for your transport to come through. If you decide to, anyway." Another laugh came across. "See you soon."

She'd come through. How couldn't she? Mirabel was all too curious, after all.

"They'll be here soon." I told the Queen. "You might want to make sure that you're ready to receive them."

Altea nodded.

This was going to be a fun conversation. I can just tell.

"Will you be joining me?"

"If you don't mind." I nodded. "This is as good an opportunity as any to start talking to them."

And... there they go, straight through the Wormhole. Of course Mirabel couldn't resist.

"I... forgive me if this sounds callous, but why do you even bother?" She asked. "You're much more advanced than them- much more advanced than us... Why?"

"Why not?" I asked in turn.

I didn't need a reason to do everything. Because I could was reason enough in this case.

The Novus transport was... kind of wierd. Wide, flat, and relatively thin led to an odd aesthetic. Still, the blue and silver colour was nice enough.

A trio of Inquisitors -The same Inquisitors that had led me in, I noted- was guiding it in, leading it to the same building that my own transport had arrived in.

Could it fit?

...

Yeah, it'd be fine.

"This meeting is going to be delightfully interesting." I noted.

"What makes you say that?" Altea asked.

"Oh, many things." The Masari meeting with the Novus in a way that wasn't a last minute alliance and stab at the Purifier, myself also being there, Mirabel meeting with the Queen even as the Hierarchy was utterly powerless to stop it, half a dozen more... "Seeing the both of you interact with each other is one of them."

"Will that really be so interesting?"

I laughed. "Oh, you have no idea." The thought was making me a little bit giddy. "The both of you know so little about each other, so little of each other's capabilities... Two cultures almost completely alien are about to interact with each other." I took a slow, deep breath. Unnecessary, but I was expressing myself here. "And I get to watch."

I smiled, looking at her. "That, Queen Altea, is very interesting."

83

The Novus transport landed, gently coming to a stop.

It wasn't a normal transport, no. This was modified for Mirabel and Viktor's use; a portion of the Nanite Matrixes taken out so that Mirabel wouldn't have to be disassembled and re-assembled.

Not that it was impossible for the Novus.

A port opened, CGI Viktor hovering out.

The sensors on my Avatar were nothing compared to that of my Commanders, but they were sufficient enough to tell me that Mirabel, for once, wasn't inside him.

She was in the transport.

I looked past him, spying Mirabel as she walked out; clothed in some strange silver, grey, and blue suit, different from the suit she had worn when piloting Viktor.

Which, now that I was paying attention to it, was actually quite interesting. My sensors, underpowered as they were on my Avatar, could still easily make out technological mesh that was this suit.

And 'mesh' was quite appropriate. Tiny, tiny, tiny pieces of metal were interwoven with the mesh, an alloy that was very lightweight, yet quite strong and flexible, while also providing insulation against temperature and radiation extremes.

Intelligent, considering the Hierarchy's love of both.

I could also see nanites crawling through it, drawing power from the suit itself, which it was generating from Mirabel's body heat, and in turn automatically regulating her temperature.

It was rather form-fitting, though it did an admirable job of not emphasizing her womanly features, instead staying smart and sensible.

I liked it.

Her hair was brushed back, kept tied up by a simple band, the symbol on her forehead proudly shown.

She looked around for a few moments, admiring the inside of the Atlatea, before shaking her head and looking towards us.

Queen Altea stepped forwards. "Welcome to Atlatea." She gestured outwards, before gesturing to herself. "I am Queen Altea, ruler of the Masari."

Mirabel blinked, before nodding. "Thank you. My name is Mirabel, Second in Command of Novus." She gave an odd bow, before straightening up. She glanced over to me, apparently noting the differences between myself and the Queen.

"My name is Drich." I smiled as she twitched, obviously recognizing my voice and my name. "A traveller." I am what I am.

She blinked.

I grinned at her, before looking at Viktor.

He was very impressive, I had to admit. Just bristling with advanced Novus technology, supremely well balanced, his armour composites providing him an incredible durability by most standards, that gun of his...

Very impressive indeed.

"Well aren't you an interesting one?" I murmured. Those... Yes, photo-receptors, other assorted sensors. Advanced- not nearly as good as my own, but superior to much of the Hierarchy's and a significant portion of the Novus' own armoury, yet impressive nonetheless.

His head twisted slightly, turning in my direction. A series of almost unintelligible sounds followed- and I say almost because I understood them.

Quyion language. Which I didn't actually know, since the Hierarchy had never bothered building a translator for it.

"Of course." I stated. "Your design is rather impressive."

"You... understood that?" Mirabel asked.

"Indeed." I glanced at her for a moment, before turning to the Queen. "Shall we be going?"

"We should." Altea nodded. "Though it is perhaps unnecessary." She turned to Mirabel. "You came here to seek an alliance against the Hierarchy, yes?"

Mirabel nodded.

"Then it is already sealed." Altea looked up. "The Hierarchy is the enemy of us all. With nothing to gain by fighting each other, no Masari will object." She looked down again, sighing. "Though I regret resorting to violence... it is the only language the Hierarchy understands. Peace will have to come through war once again." She turned to face Mirabel. "We will help you."

"Just... like that?" Mirabel asked, before shaking her head. "Thank you."

Wait.

"Do not thank me." Altea shook her head. "After our sins, this is the least we could do."

That's my First-Contact interaction?

Mirabel looked confused for a moment, seemingly about to ask what she meant, before clearly deciding it wasn't important.

No. No! You're meant to be interacting much more than that!

Viktor said something.

And it should be funny!

"My son, Prince Zessus, or my General, Lord Charos." She answered him. "Both are in command of a portion of the Masari army. Both will help if they can."

But... but... Mah first contact!

"Thank you for the information." Mirabel stated.

I sighed.

Damn it.

And poof went all the glorious first contact images in my head.

"If you want a quick trip back, just tell me." I offered. "It really isn't much trouble for me to get you... pretty much anywhere on the planet at the moment." And a bit further if I really wanted you to go there.

I didn't, of course. I was the only one in this solar system outside of Earth's orbit, and for the moment, it was going to stay that way.

"Thank you for the offer." Mirabel nodded. I shrugged.

It wasn't really a problem for me, after all.

I paused for a moment as I noted some of the Hierarchy's actions; a number of their units heading towards a Masari base.

Orlok was with them. And the base in question happened to belong to Zessus.

I accessed Orlok's systems, checking through his memories...

Oh. Oh ho~

Finally decide to become a traitor, did you?

I gave a considering hum.

"Drich?" Queen Altea asked. "Why are you humming?"

"The Hierarchy is built on treachery." I answered. "Treason, traitors... These things are quite common." I looked at the walls of Atlatea, staring in Orlok's direction. "This particular one is known as Orlok the Eternal."

I turned back, smiling at her. "As it so happens, Orlok is also one of the few members of the Hierarchy that actually realizes what his civilization is."

"Disgusting?" | "Sickening?" Mirabel and Altea asked at the same time.

"A disease." I agreed. "And while this realisation wouldn't matter in many other cases, Orlok is rather strategically placed to do a lot of damage to the Hierarchy." I turned back around. "After all, he's the general of the galactic fleet."

84

Kamal Re'x's lust for power had gotten the better of him.

Orlok would be lying if he said that he was surprised it had taken this long.

"Commander Orlok." One of his soldiers asked. "Why are we always the ones to die first?"

"Because the egos of long-distant 'masters' demand it." He responded.

His words were treason. If Kamal had heard him, he would have attempted to execute him on the spot. Several of his soldiers looked at him, their armour covering their faces, but he was experienced enough to know that they were surprised.

"And we are fools to listen." Orlok continued. "I tire of it."

He was tired of many things.

Tired of continuously risking his life, tired of entering battle, tired of sacrificing the lives of his men for no good reason, tired of listening to Kamal Re'x, tired of destroying worlds, tired of annihilating species after species after species for the disease that was the Hierarchy.

"Too long have I strided across the ashes of dead worlds bearing the symbol of the Hierarchy." He stated. "Bearing the symbol of oppression, destruction, and a pointless lust for resources."

"Those words are treason." Another soldier stated, lightly.

"Of that, I am aware." Orlok acknowledged. "I do not care. If the title of 'traitor' is what I will gain from refusing to be a slave to the whims of Overseers and Underseers, then it is a title I will take with relish."

There was silence throughout the transport, his soldiers looking between themselves.

Not for long. His soldiers were efficient in that way.

"What would you have us do, Commander Orlok?"

"We must seek allies." He stated. "A traitor I may be, a fool I am not."

Kamal Re'x's downfall would come soon. Orlok only hoped he would get the last shot.

I waved my hand, freezing the hologram.

Well spoken, Orlok.

"Things are going to get very fun, very soon." I smiled.

You're definitely not going to die this time around. Not by Kamal's hand, at least.

"A Hierarchy general longing for peace?" Altea seemed flummoxed by the very thought. "What has the universe come to while we were sleeping?"

Mirabel only stared at Orlok's frozen visage, her face scrunched up in the very picture of confusion.

Viktor too, though he got over it much quicker than Mirabel and Altea did. Viktor spoke, beginning oddly slow and hesitant, before speeding back to normal.

Mirabel nodded at his words, shaking her head and snapping herself out of confusion. "You're right."

She turned to face Altea, a frown still present on her face. "Thank you for the alliance, but we should be going. The Founder will want to know of this." She did that odd little bowing thing again.

"May you have a safe journey." Altea nodded at her.

"I'll have a wormhole opened for you." I told her. "It will take you to the Founder's current location."

Mirabel smiled, before turning around and walking back to into the transport. Viktor followed her shortly afterwards, nodding at us.

The ramp closed as the transport rose into the air, the trio of Inquisitors moving over to escort them out.

I gave a slight hum, before turning to Altea. "Shall we return to the library?"

Altea nodded.

"A question, if you don't mind me asking." I began, when we were halfway to the library.

Altea only looked at me, some interest in her eyes.

"You're teaching me your knowledge." I stated. "What is your opinion on me teaching it to others?" I asked, looking at her.

She looked forwards, her expression twisting into a slight frown. "It has, to my knowledge, never been done." Her head tilted to the side as she considered. "But I would not feel offended. Some other Masari would mind, but..."

"Yeah..." I shrugged. "I'll be honest; you're the only Masari whose opinion I actually care about."

She gave a slight smile, and an amused huff. "Why do you ask?" She turned to me, inquisitive.

"I have a companion." I stated. "And I do not wish to keep this hidden from him. No doubt, if I ever gained any more companions, I would also eventually feel the urge to teach them what you've taught me."

She nodded, satisfied. "If you wish to teach others, I offer only the warning that you make sure they are trustworthy. That was our mistake, after all."

"He will be quite happy, then. Would you like to meet him?" I asked, mildly curious.

She looked up slightly as she considered. "I wouldn't mind."

I smiled. In another dimension entirely, so did Little1.

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

When she entered the library, she was met with a sight most unexpected.

"Not what you were expecting was it?" Drich asked, obviously amused. "Don't let his avatar fool you. He's definitely not what he seems."

Her companion giggled -actually giggled-, before moving off, heading to another part of the library.

Her companion's other bodies moved out of the way, making a path for her.

She followed it, taking her seat once again.

Drich looked up, smiling at her.

A few moments later, Drich looked down, still smiling that amused smile. "Now, now, Little1." Drich gently chided. "It's polite to introduce yourself."

The child -for it could be nothing else- in Drich's lap looked up, startlingly bright blue eyes shifting to meet Altea's own.

The voice was slow, carefully measured and almost perfectly calm, but it was still fittingly young. "Greetings." His movements were slow, unpractised, but he nodded. "My name is Little1."

I smiled, patting him on the head. "Good boy."

I hugged him closer, snuggling with him. "Just the cutest little thing, aren't you?" I murmured.

His avatar was similar to mine. Same hair colour, same eye colour, same complexion, which made us resemble each other. The difference, of course, was in the size and appearance. And 'gender'.

He was small. A tiny little thing that didn't even reach my waist. Consequently, his appearance was that of a young child, appropriately proportioned- and just absolutely cute.

That hadn't quite been Little1's intention- but he wasn't complaining.

He did so enjoy the attention I was lavishing upon him.

85

"It seems that your son is a little overzealous." I gave an amused smile.

Altea only sighed.

Little1's head tilted to the side, a perfect picture of childish curiosity. His actions had grown much more 'natural' as the hours passed, and now it was just this side of impossible to tell that he wasn't normal on a first glance.

"This Hierarchy general is quite skilled, I must admit." Altea spoke.

"Orlok wasn't given the title 'The Eternal' for nothing. Prince Zessus gave a good showing, however." I hummed. "Though he could have done better."

Altea nodded. "A more strategic use of his teleportation, or perhaps a better trap." She noted.

Still, that was that. Orlok had his ally, remained unaware of Nufai's continued loyalty to Kamal Re'x, and was set to strike at the Hierarchy loyalists.

Set to win, even. If they could get that transmission out, they could force the Hierarchy all around the planet to surrender.

"Everything's coming to a head." I picked up Little1, holding him in my arms. "What do you think, sweet child of mine? Should we end it all there?"

He nodded, smiling and hugging me.

"It'll have to be suitably dramatic." I murmured. "Kamal Re'x's defining trait is arrogance. We'll have to show him just how utterly outclassed he is. How utterly outclassed the Hierarchy is..."

"Maelstrom." He whispered. I could see the beginnings of an idea in his mind, a picture and a glimpse.

I smiled.

"Seems there's going to be a party." I grinned, my eyes flicking to the Queen. "What's say we crash it?"

"General." I spoke. "I have news."

"Mirabel." I began. "You're going to want to hear this."

"Kamal appears to have overlooked our ability to summon reinforcements." Orlok snidely commented.

It would not be the first time incompetence had struck the Underseer.

This time, however, the mistake would come back haunt him.

A Glyph Carver skittered across the terrain, its laser carefully etching a symbol on the ground. A Science Walker, to complement the Habitat and Assembly Walkers already present.

"Commander!" A transmission came. "The Masari Prince's transport is heading towards your location."

"I see a new day truly has dawned- a Hierarchy grunt is good for his word." Zessus commented.

I held my hands out, a ball of golden light suspended between them.

Little1 stood beside me, looking onwards with curiosity as I did my thing, constructing a Teleporter in front of us.

It seemed to be spontaneously generating from nothing- but that was only an illusion. I was pulling Matter and Energy from my storage, and sustaining a spatial warp that was dumping that same Matter and Energy directly onto the Teleporter, therefore making the beams of light that the Masari Architects used unnecessary.

It would have proven tiring for them, no doubt. But I didn't tire.

The golden light faded as the Teleporter completed, coming online and immediately connection to another Teleporter, one near Orlok's and Zessus' position.

A hologram crawled over the slight blue swirl, showing what was on the other side of the Teleporter. A small consideration so the Masari wouldn't be completely disorientated when they went through.

I checked on the Novus, noting that they were still rapidly constructing massive amounts of units, gathering them in front of the Quantum Portal.

Preparing to launch a surprise attack on Kamal Re'x.

Even if he somehow managed to escape Orlok, The Novus, and the Masari forces aiming for his head, he would not escape me.

The war ends today. I'd had my fun.

"What treachery is this?" Zessus questioned.

"That was my question for you, Orlok." Kamal Re'x floated forwards, briefly focusing on the Masari Prince before turning his attention to the renegade general. "These noble intentions of ending bloodshed, an alliance with a fallen enemy; very ambitious of you." He sneered. "And if we were a race of flowers, it would be rewarded!"

"My reward will be seeing your reign come to an end." Orlok retorted.

"It will not happen in your lifetime. All 30 seconds of what's left of it!"

I couldn't help it.

I laughed.

My laughter rang out over the dish, instantaneously silencing both of the aliens, drawing the attention of everybody.

It took a few moments for me to calm down, but eventually, I did. "Do... do you two have any idea how utterly hilarious your bickering is?"

Zessus looked around, seeing nothing. "You..."

"Yes." I responded. "Me."

My Avatar materialized next to him with a sizzle of static electricity- unnecessary, but I thought it was cool. Alongside me was Little1's Avatar, whose hand was clasped with mine.

I looked at Orlok, grinning. "You two sound like an old married couple." I looked at Kamal, and smirked. "A particularly vicious married couple at that."

Kamal twitched, angered.

"You could host a stand-up comedy routi-" His arm snapped up, a fiery blast of psychic energy instantaneously rushing towards us.

Little1 brought his hand up, channelling psychic energy of his own. There was a slight pulse that only I noticed, before Kamal's blast folded like wet paper, nullified by Little1.

A moment later, Little1 clenched his hand into a fist, and that same psychic energy promptly hammered Kamal into the ground, slamming him into it so hard that cracks spread across the surrounding 20 meters, Kamal himself buried almost 3 feet under.

There was a groan, and I smiled.

"Little1, you have no idea how proud of you I am at this moment." I reached over and ruffled his hair. He turned to me, smiling.

"Anyway, as I was saying," I ignored Kamal as he picked himself up, psychically wrenching himself out of the ground. "Kamal Re'x." My voice was completely serious, not even a trace of the humour from moments before present. "I am Commander Drich."

I locked eyes with the suddenly very cautious alien.

"And I have decided that the Hierarchy needs to go."

Four things happened simultaneously.

First; several Quantum Portals opened, Novus units streaming out.

Second; General Moore and his men teleported in.

Third; the Masari army rushed out of the stealthed Teleporters.

And fourth:

All hell broke loose.

86

Minute amounts of antimatter lanced out from Dervish jets, wrapped in containment fields so that the tiny pellets actually lasted long enough to make it to the enemy.

Their targets?

The transports.

There were a scant few seconds between the antimatter containment fields latching onto them and the containment fields decaying completely, so Kamal had just enough time to realise that his avenue of escape was about to be cut off completely.

Not that it mattered. He had much more pressing things to worry about.

Such as everything else that was being shoved down his throat.

From the left came the Novus, Ohm Robots pouring out in the hundreds, Antimatter Tanks and Amplifiers coming to support them, targeting Defilers, Phase Tanks, and the Walkers present. A few Variants also appeared, opening fire on Kamal's troops. A number of Corruptors accompanied the Dervish jets, transmitting their viral payloads into the Walkers' systems. Finally, for both defence and offence, several Field Inverters appeared, activating their shields in short order. Another portal opened up, this one transporting Mirabel and Viktor onto the battle, the latter immediately launching missiles.

From the right came the Masari, dozens of disciples rushing through, targeting the Walkers and opening fire upon them, bursts of burning Light Energy rushing towards the plasma-cannon equipped legs. But that wasn't the end of the Masari army, of course, as Conquerors, Sentries, and Peacebringers also joined the Disciples on the battlefield. The first targeted Defilers and Phase Tanks, ripping them to shreds with bursts of burning Light Energy. The second targeted infantry, Lost Ones and Grunts, lancing beams of Light Energy reaping a harvest of Hierarchy lives. The third targeted the Walkers, triple cannons opening fire upon them alongside the Disciples. Lord Charos led the charge, his body glowing with powerful, dangerous energies.

From behind came General Moore and his men. There weren't many, only a couple dozen, but they were wielding my technology, and that was all that mattered. Teleportation beacons were launched from their guns, each one finding a target in the form of Hierarchy Grunts, Lost Ones, Brutes, Defilers and Phase Tanks, all of which were teleported away to my stealthed stasis facilities, locked away until later.

From the front was Orlok and troops, all of whom joined the battle once the surprise was out of the way. Grunts rushed forwards, plasma shotguns opening fire upon Kamal's own soldiers. Brutes charged, leaping into battle and attacking with furious rage. Phase Tanks skirted around the side, unleashing plasma upon the army even as Defiler radiation beams sliced at infantry. Saucers unleashed Foo against their counterparts, the plasma orbs bringing down the enemy Saucers and Monoliths quickly.

Orlok himself quickly attacked Kamal, the plasma cannon on his shoulder sending a burst directly at the psychic's face, a blast which was diminished by a psychic shield, though not negated entirely.

Outnumbered, outgunned, surrounded on all sides, with no possibility of escape, Kamal's army was set to fold quickly, no doubt about to get torn to shreds by... everything. They'd give as good as they could, but...

There was simply too much firepower directed at them, and they were caught severely off guard by the ambush.

Kamal shrieked in rage, launching a blast of psychic energies at Orlok, who more or less ignored it entirely and began to walk forwards.

I turned towards Nufai, noting that the Skinwalker seemed to eying the situation, no doubt re-evaluating his decisions. He nodded to himself, and began to make his way towards Kamal, his phase claws briefly glimmering with energy.

The loyalist turns traitor to save his own skin. Twice, he'd done that, first selling out his race, and now selling out Kamal when things went wrong. And he could get away with it, too, as Orlok believed him to be on his side. A small lie to Kamal that he had truly always been on Orlok's side, and... well. Never say that the Skinwalker isn't opportunistic.

Meh.

I could deal with him later.

It wasn't like he was a threat to me or something.

"Nice day we're having, isn't it Zessus?" I smiled at the Prince. I noted a Defiler turning to us, its radiation beam charging for a brief instant before I shut it off with a thought, sending the machine crashing down.

Hmm.

It'd be a real dick move if I were to shut off all their vehicles right now.

Real dick move...

I grinned.

A moment later, I snapped my fingers and did exactly that.

Monoliths and Saucers fell out of the sky, Defilers tipped over mid-step, Phase Tanks crashed to the ground, the few Walkers present suddenly ceased functioning, holding completely still. The Plasma Shotguns and Plasma Pistols of the Grunts and Lost Ones also stopped work, shutting down.

Now, they were almost completely defenceless, on top of being outnumbered, outgunned, surrounded on all sides, and unable to escape.

Put frankly, they were fucked. They'd been fucked anyway, but they were even more fucked now.

Another blast of psychic energy slammed into him, washing over his armour. It was doing a not inconsiderable amount of damage, but it was not enough to stop him. No amount of fragmented armour, dented metal, and broken circuitry would stop him from attempting to kill Kamal. It would take nothing less than death, than complete destruction, to stop him from killing the Underseer.

His Plasma Cannon returned fire, tracing accurate bursts directly into Kamal's face, each one unfortunately diminished by the Underseer's immense psychic might.

Orlok had no illusions as to what would be happening if the psychic shield fell out of place. Enough heat and radiation to melt solid metal walls, applied directly to Kamal's fragile organic skin.

Yet another blast of psychic energy followed, though this one was slightly less focussed than the ones preceding it. Still, he pushed through it just as he had all the others, and finally came close enough to grasp Kamal with his Crusher Device.

"Your tyranny ends today, Kamal."

He gripped the Underseer, the Crusher Device immediately beginning to apply pressure upon him, pushing against the psychic shield.

Kamal grunted in pain, before his hands began to glow with psychic energy, rapidly building up.

The glow reached a peak, before suddenly fading, the energy harmlessly scattered from Kamal's body.

And, as it so happened, disrupting the shield.

His Plasma Cannon fired the instant he saw the opportunity, intense heat and radiation instantly burning a hole through Kamal's head, a wound that not even the Underseer could survive. The body twitched a few times, before going limp.

He let go, dropping the Underseer's corpse to the ground

He spared it only a moment's glance, before looking to the side, turning to face the pair of strange beings that had appeared before.

"Oh, whatever." The taller one sighed. "I had so many ideas on how to fuck with Kamal, but sure. Killing him works too."

It... she? Looked up, staring at him. "Spoilsport."

87

Well, that's that then.

Kamal dead, by Orlok's hand.

A shame. I'd had so many different plans for him.

Oh, who the hell am I kidding, if I'd wanted him to live I would have stopped Orlok from firing on him.

Meh.

No great loss, really.

A burst of psychic fear spelled the end of cohesion in the remains of Kamal's army, undoubtedly Nufai's work.

Hmm.

Once the last of Kamal's army has been dealt with, this situation is probably going to get very awkward, very quickly.

Oh dear was I right.

A situation that was only the barest of threads away from becoming a clusterfuck, prevented also by the barest of threads.

My threads. My designs.

The building we all stood in now had been constructed by me, shaped in a pentagon. A forum building, really, each side of the pentagon hosting a single faction.

My Avatar stood with Little1's avatar on a raised platform, with Orlok to our left, and Zessus and Charos to our right. On the other side of Orlok was General Moore and another Human soldier, both currently outside of the suits I had given them. On the other side of the Masari, and next to the Humans, Mirabel and Viktor were present, the former safely contained within the latter.

Myself, Little1, General Moore, his companion, Charos, and Zessus all stood on raised platforms, putting us on roughly the same height as Orlok and Viktor.

In the center of the building was a holographic projector, though that was currently off.

"Now that everybody is gathered," I began. "Do note that I'm only hosting this to prevent any further, unnecessary conflict from breaking out." To stop you all from fucking up the fragile, fragile peace.

I glanced between them all, before nodding. "Now then, introductions." I held my hand against my chest. "I am Commander Drich." I gestured to my right. "Prince Zessus and Lord Charos, representing the Masari." I gestured towards Mirabel and Viktor. "Mirabel and Viktor, Second in Command of Novus." I gestured towards General Moore. "General Moore, leader of a Human resistance group." And, finally, I gestured to my left. "Orlok-"

"The Traitor." Orlok stated. "Commander of the Hierarchy rebellious forces."

"Orlok the Traitor, then." I nodded. I looked around the room one more time, before stepping backwards. "If you have anything you wish to discuss, now is the time."

This was going to be tiring. I could just tell.

In orbit, much more interesting things were happening.

A part of my attention was devoted there, a second stream of consciousness managing it.

Specifically, it was a Maelstrom. Also specifically, when I said orbit, I meant lunar orbit.

The Maelstrom was currently massing a variation of Construction Pods, one that was much smaller and meant for producing another unit entirely.

A rather obvious fact, considering the size of this variant.

Basically a rectangular prism 15 meters long, and 12 meters tall and wide, equipped with some stealth, a teleporter, and a moderately effective gravitic drive, this Construction Pod was little more than a production platform for an entirely new type of unit in my army, one which served an as-of-yet unfulfilled purpose.

Namely; deep space construction.

Oh, sure, I had plenty of things that could construct in orbit, and the Maelstrom was fully capable of serving as an industrial base anywhere, but these new units were a bit different.

Much like the Construction Pods that created them, these units were mostly rectangular prisms, though they differed from the Construction Pods in that they actually did have some sloping armour so that it didn't entirely look like a floating brick.

Unlike the Construction Pods, however, these units were equipped with several things. First was a dual Fabricator and Protocrafter system, the latter enabling easier manipulation of nanites in deep space while the former providing the brunt of manufacturing power.

The stealth on them was considerable for something of their size, and they were subsequently hard to detect. This stealth, coupled with a powerful gravitic drive, meant that the things were harder to hit than drunken hornets, and even if they did suffer a hit, quantum-locked, seraphim-derived alloys meant that they had a considerable durability.

Compounding that durability and speed was a Phase Device, sufficiently powerful to enable not just phasing, but full out-and-out FTL. Subsequently, they possessed sensor arrays that allowed them the ability to navigate while in Phase, a sort of bi-dimensional detector that allowed things in realspace to detect things phased out, and things phased out to detect things in realspace, on top of the already extensive sensors that I'd mounted onto the platform.

Supplying the energy for all that was a Resource Core. Just 1, which was still sufficient enough to enable velocities measured in dozens of light years per day; 68, to be precise. That 1 Resource Core was the reason for the modified Construction Pods, since constructing them completely safely required time, time that would slow the rate of production if I was using a Maelstrom's fabricators, while the modified Construction Pods had no such limit.

The idea was that a Maelstrom would construct dozens to hundreds of the Construction Pods, which could then manoeuvre together and engage in massive, rapid, space-efficient construction. Space-efficient construction out in fucking space.

I named the modified Construction Pods 'Lighters'.

Subsequently, I named the deep space constructors 'Embers'.

I'd actually spent a considerable amount of time debating on what to name them, but, Lighters Embers.

Appropriate naming themes, after all. Lighters produce Embers, and from the Embers come massive fires- though that was perhaps taking the metaphor too far.

Once the Embers had sufficient numbers, I would then have them begin to construct a fleet. I had a few ideas there, too. I had a thought of using mostly Maelstroms, but there was also another idea floating around.

I got to admit, that prospect was kind of tempting.

88

I'd remarked on the Hierarchy's method of FTL before. I hadn't quite gone fully into the particulars, however.

Mostly because it hadn't been important then.

But it was important now, and thus; elaboration. Everything I said before still applied, but I do have to note a moderately important part of the process of FTL.

Do keep in mind that I'm speaking in laymen's terms here, as much of the actual concepts involved had no real or exact equivalent in English- or, for that matter, Human languages in general.

Prior to actually going FTL, a Hierarchy Command Ship -or any other ship equipped with a Phase Device of such magnitude- would first generate what the Hierarchy called a 'Quantum Field', which was effectively a usually-spherical phasic bubble.

Such a Quantum Field served two purposes.

First; the Quantum Field defined a volume of space to be phased out.

Second; it acted as an area of stability for ships in phase space.

The first was important in making sure that the entire ship phased out, and ensuring that nothing was left behind.

The second was important in making sure that a ship stayed safe while phased out.

The unreality of phase space was not the most hospitable environment for... well, anything that required the laws of physics to continue existing. The Quantum Field ensured a degree of permanency for the laws of physics, without which a ship would just cease to exist.

Or worse, as some of the Hierarchy would say.

The Hierarchy didn't have any solid evidence of what actually happened to things that went into phase space without a Quantum Field to stabilise and protect them, but the most agreed upon theory was cessation of existence. There were other, more amusing theories, which ranged from ships being stranded forever in the void of nonexistence, ships being stranded in other universes entirely, and ships being the target of particularly ravenous and cruel lovecraftian-esque abominations which would love nothing more than to strip the flesh from your bones and savour your soul as an enticing sweetener.

Of course, the ones who said that were wrong. The majority were correct in this case, ships merely ceased to exist.

And I knew that for a simple reason.

It was Masari technology.

Generating dimensional pockets where the laws of physics were enforced, advanced manipulation of the fabric of space?

Even if I hadn't learned it from the Masari directly, that would have been all the clue I'd have needed to figure it out.

Really, what else could it have been?

I digress.

A few important things about the Quantum Fields.

First; theoretically speaking, a Quantum Field could be any possible size. It was fully possible to generate and sustain a Quantum Field that was only a few picometers wide, and, likewise, it was theoretically possible to generate and sustain a Quantum Field several hundred thousand kilometres wide.

Theoretically. The largest Quantum Field the Hierarchy had ever generated had been a smidgen over 600 kilometres wide, which, incidentally, had been generated by the ship that had brought the Hierarchy to this galaxy.

Practically speaking, however, every unit of energy that was drained in generating and maintaining a field was a unit of energy that wasn't going towards increasing the velocity.

Second; the sub-light propulsion of something travelling through phase space was more or less completely meaningless. Even if a ship or station was incapable of moving under its own power in realspace, it would still be able to travel through phase space.

Third; the amount of mass seemed irrelevant when travelling through phase space. Only the size of the Quantum Field had any appreciable effect on the energy cost

A few implications, there. Most of which I rather liked.

For a... rather simple reason.

With no hard and fast limit on the size of what could travel through phase space, and mass being irrelevant, there was a considerable possibility that I would be able to make a Metal Planet go FTL.

"I do not think you understand the scale of the Hierarchy." Orlok stated.

Took 30 minutes to get to this. I had to admit, I was somewhat surprised it had stayed relatively civil for so long.

"And I don't think you have any actual idea of my capabilities." I looked at him. "I will purge this entire galaxy of the Hierarchy in the next two months. In three, my ships will arrive at the galaxy where they came from. In seven, I will have scouted every single galaxy within three hundred thousand light years of theirs."

I glanced to the center of the room for a moment, activating the holographic projector.

A full-colour, rotating image of earth appeared, nearly 10 meters wide.

Faintly, the seven Hierarchy Command Ships could be seen hanging above the planet, though each was obviously rather small in comparison to Earth.

The image shrunk massively, until the moon became visible too, a small bit of floating text above it labelling it 'Luna'.

It zoomed it again, this time focusing on the moon, before going even further and showing my current fleet of... well, everything I'd built over the last 30 minutes.

There was a lot.

There was always going to be a lot, of course. A Maelstrom generated 26,730 units of metal every single second, and a Lighter costed a scant 445.5 units of metal. With each of the six factories on board going full bore, they were throwing out 60 Lighters every single second.

Those hives, in turn, immediately began working on Embers, which would complete approximately 40 seconds later. Over the course of the last 30 minutes, a single Maelstrom, alone, could have constructed 62,100 Embers, just from the output of the Lighters, assuming the Embers themselves hadn't been doing anything.

But, they had. They'd been busy little bees, and had zipped around, flitting to and fro, constructing more Maelstroms.

Now?

Hundreds of thousands of Bumblebees flitted around in space, each one helpfully highlighted on my hologram.

Also present were over a hundred Maelstroms, each one spread out rather far, making space for the ever-growing swarm of ships. Soon enough, the rate of production would rise to the point where I'd actually have to have them start using FTL to spread out far enough.

But that wasn't for a while yet.

"See those? Those are ships I've built in the last 30 minutes." I said, lightly. "Each and every single one of those can expect to fight and win against an entire Hierarchy fleet. I consider them cannonfodder." I stared at him.

"Make no mistake Orlok, when it comes to matters of galactic war, there are few that can pose a threat to me." I let that hang in the air for a few moments, before grinning. "Want to see the spreadsheets?"

89

It brings an oddly amusing feeling out of me when I note that, had my Embers continued to produce Maelstroms after the first 200, I would have had 1,145,535,806,786 Maelstroms by now.

I didn't.

And there was a simple reason for that.

I wanted something a little bit faster than a Maelstrom. Not that they were slow- no, definitely not, but I could design things faster than them.

And by 'faster', I meant sitting right on the edge of the upper bound of phase space travel speed, at a good 2010~ light years per day.

Much better than the 757~ of the Maelstrom.

Anyway, back on-topic; I'd designed another starship for my use in conquering the Hierarchy.

It was big.

It was, in fact, the second largest design in my database. Of course, 'second largest' only applied if one didn't consider the Metal Planet's variable size.

Either way, it was a 2.5 kilometre wide sphere, which I'd stuffed to the brim with lots of goodies.

Such as 8000 Resource Cores to get something that big to actually fucking move at that velocity.

As well as the numerous stealth and defensive technology, ranging from Firestorm Barriers to Scrin energy shields, to quantum locking, Seraphim-derived armour, and even numerous Wormhole generators.

Of course, that wasn't the end of the treats inside the little bag of goodies they'd had. Serving in both an offensive, defensive, and supportive role, I'd equipped them with a very large, very powerful, and very long-ranged Protocrafter, one which was so horrendously energy intensive that merely using the thing would immediately half the energy income from the Resource Cores.

Still, with that, it had an effective range of 80,000~ kilometers. Longer, if I didn't mind a lower precision.

I named the unit 'Pyre'.

Because that's what I intended to do, and shortly would do, with the Hierarchy. Put it to the pyre.

I waited only a single day for my fleet to build up.

By the end of it, I had a ridiculous amount of ships. 719,792 Pyres, to be exact, with yet more on the way, though it was perhaps unnecessary.

In a single instant, each and every single one of them vanished, Quantum Fields enveloping them and the ships themselves vanishing into phase space.

Each one had a different destination, a different star. All but one where in this galaxy, targeting the 719,791 closest stars to Earth, while the last, final one was heading straight for the Large Magellanic Cloud. It'd speed things up a bit.

Once they arrived, they would scout the solar system, searching for any sign of Hierarchy presence.

If they didn't find any, they'd stay just long enough to construct an Ember, before moving on to the next system. The Ember they left behind would begin to construct Lighters, which would begin to construct more Embers, which would begin assisting the first in producing yet more Lighters, up until there was an appropriately sized swarm and they could begin to construct Pyres.

If the Pyres did find any Hierarchy presence, they'd go on an assault and, with the Protocrafter I'd installed, shut down first any methods of FTL or escape, before then taking control of all their technology. After that was done, a Pyre would create Lighters, which would create Embers, and so on, so forth, up until there were enough Embers to rapidly construct a a transport ship- more or less a 3 kilometre sphere filled to the brim with stasis chambers, Resource Cores, stealth, and other defences. Those ships would then be filled to with members of the Hierarchy, before making their way back to this solar system.

I suspected that there would be a lot of them after I was done.

Go out, capture, spread, come back with every single member of the Hierarchy, and don't kill even a single being.

That was the plan, anyway.

It took a little bit over 3 minutes for the first Pyre to reach the closest stellar system.

There was, as I expected, nobody there.

40 seconds later, the Pyre vanished, leaving an Ember in its wake. By that point, several more had arrived in different stellar systems. None found any just yet, but I knew that there was a Hierarchy presence over there.

It wouldn't take long for that particular Pyre to get into sensor range for the Hierarchy Command Ships. Once it did, it would change its course slightly, in preparation to drop into reality near the Hierarchy fleet. It would alpha-strike them, disabling everything in range before going FTL towards the ships that were out of range and getting them, too.

Catch the Hierarchy flat-footed.

I hoped, anyway. It would be a pain to run down a Hierarchy ship.

Though that wasn't to say that I couldn't do it.

For the Hierarchy ships in Epsilon Eridani, everything went wrong all at once.

My Pyre appeared near one of the ships on the edge of the formation, all eight of which were hovering above a singular planet.

Easy targets. If they'd spread out further, they might have actually been able to do... something.

The Pyres Protocrafter glowed as it targeted a ship, quickly analysing it and identifying the various components, logging that within my databanks.

Same model as the ones that Kamal had used.

A moment later, the Protocrafter severed cables and energy feeds, removing the possibility of it escaping. A moment after that, the sub-light propulsion of the ship was also disabled, leaving it drifting in orbit.

The Pyre turned quickly, the Protocrafter disabling ship after ship after ship, rendering all eight incapable of escaping in half as many seconds.

Once that was done, it turned upon the planet underneath, the Protocrafter targeting the vehicles and shortly disabling them, too.

Just in case, really.

After that task was done, it turned upon the Command Ships again, beginning to take physical control of the systems, soon leaving them in my power.

I plundered the databases, looking for any information that I could use, of which there was unfortunately little.

Oh well.

I could deal with that.

90

The next several months passed slowly.

Very, very, very slowly.

According to plan, yes- but it was far too slow for my liking nonetheless.

And with a few... let's say, hiccups, at the beginning.

"What do I have to gain from lying?" I asked. "Nothing, that's what. I can assure you, and even present you with physical proof, that what I claim to be true is true."

"The claims you put forward are too ridiculous to be believed." The Founder stated. "You are implying that you are capable of generating excessive amounts of matter and energy from nothing, at will, with no apparent cost in any area. Furthermore, you are implying a construction capacity that far and away exceeds all known methods of construction. You are also applying that the so-called starships you're constructing have near-perfect stealth to such a degree that, despite being located in space, nobody present has any means to discover their existence." He continued to look down at me. "Any single one of these claims would be met with scepticism. All of them together are so unbelievable that I have to ask if you consider me a fool."

In response, I pointed upwards, a considerable portion of the day time, cloudless sky suddenly coloured black, grey, and dark blue from the sheer number of Embers currently in Earth's orbit. "I don't consider you a fool, no. I would, however, consider you a fool if, even after I presented my evidence, you continued to not believe it."

He stared upwards for a few moments, before looking back down. "There is still a possibility-"

We vanished, reappearing on top of one those very Embers, the both of us in orbit. A small atmosphere surrounded it, just enough to carry sounds so we could continue our conversation.

The Founder looked around for a few seconds.

"Is that evidence enough?" I asked, sarcastic.

He turned to face me again. "The probably of you telling the truth just rose to 97%."

Yeah, that's what I thought.

A blip on a Pyre's sensors caught my attention.

Oh?

I redirected its course a few moments later, sending it to check out that little blip.

An object. One in real-space.

Now what would an object be doing in real space, here in the deep space, outside of any solar system?

My Pyre dropped back into realspace, still stealthed.

Now then...

The Protocrafter began to glow.

What have we here?

Oh.

Oh.

Well now, that's just... sad.

It's...

Effectively, it's an alien species' equivalent of the Voyager Probe. Not exactly the same, obviously, but close enough.

There was even instructions on how to find that species homeworld.

Only... the records I'd pulled from the Hierarchy Command Ships indicated that the Hierarchy had already visited that particular star. And had wiped out a sapient species that was present there.

A thousand lightyears away, Little1's Avatar hugged mine closer.

The Hierarchy made it a point to target alien species. I'd noted that before, but...

I examined a piece of metal floating above my hand, noting the intricate carvings and grooves on its surface, interrupted by cracks and warps in the material.

It was, at least, three or four hundred years old.

The species that had created it had been destroyed by the Hierarchy. They were an aquatic species, though partially amphibious.

That is; they could move and survive on land, but were much more comfortable underwater, where the vast majority of their living space was.

The Hierarchy had come, detected the radio signals being used, and had promptly deployed the Purifier.

Only, as I said, the vast majority of this species was underwater.

On a planet that had a surface of 92% percent water.

The use of the Purifier had caused calamitous damage on the environment. First had been the explosion itself, which had sent tidal waves across a significant portion of the planet, and also causing the evaporation of a significant portion of that very ocean.

High heat, high humidity, powerful shockwaves, and quakes had quickly scoured clean what little life existed on the planet's landmass.

Continued, repeated use of the Purifier had slowly destroyed the ocean. Everything within had been the victim of the shockwaves and explosions, which had slowly but surely killed everything. Meanwhile, the high heat and vast amounts of evaporated water in the atmosphere had caused extreme storms, the last rages of a dying planet.

There wasn't much here anymore.

In fact, the piece of metal floating above my hand was one of the few things that I could locate; the last remnants of a dead species.

The Hierarchy had located and destroyed thousands of species.

A thousand was a statistic.

Up until you were standing in the ashes of a thousand dead worlds.

In orbit above us, a Pyre began to construct another ship.

It wasn't much, really. A simple monument, and a container.

One kilometre wide, it was still equipped with the same technology that the rest of my army was, still just as capable of construction, and movement, and war- but I would not be using these in war.

The visual stealth, though present, I left off. As well as a considerable portion of other stealth measures. It would defy study and analyzation, but it wouldn't be hard to find.

There was an entrance on the side, leading to a corridor, which, in turn, led to a single chamber, open to everybody.

Within was a pedestal, a stasis field generator build into it.

I held my hand out, nudging the metal fragment forwards with psychic power, letting it settle above the pedestal.

The stasis field activated, trapping the fragment in time, to be preserved for the rest of eternity.

A final grave marker. The only grave marker.

Little1's grip on my hand tightened slightly.

I smiled at him.

"We're going to be building a lot of tombs, aren't we?" He asked. Unnecessary, certainly, as he already knew the answer.

"Too many." I agreed.

Far, far, far too many.


	10. Chapter 10: Logs 91-100

91

"What would you do in my position?" I asked.

Altea's fingers crossed together in front of her.

To our side, the Founder, currently in Performance mode, was seated. "Is it even possible?" He asked.

I nodded, looking at the center of the table between us. "For those in this galaxy, I could do it. It would be a considerable undertaking even for me, but if I wanted to, I could do it." I looked between them for a moment. "But I'm uncertain if I should."

"How many?" Altea asked.

"Seven hundred and forty six." I paused for a moment. "In this galaxy, that is. In the Hierarchy's home galaxy, hundreds more- but, in their case, the answer to the question 'is it even possible' is not 'yes', but 'maybe'."

Altea's head dipped, her eyes closing as a sorrowful sigh left her.

Life was absolutely fucking plentiful in this universe, as it turned out.

And, in turn, the number of species that had been wiped out by the Hierarchy had been haltingly large.

"Our program does not account for such a matter."

"You say that like you're incapable of making decisions outside of your program." I looked at him. "We both know the truth of the matter, there." I looked away again. "But what would you do, if you could re-seed the species the Hierarchy destroyed?"

"Would they be exactly the same?" Altea asked.

"Unlikely." I shook my head. "There is only so much data that I can gleam from light echoes. Only so much more that I could learn from processing and calculating it. The longer a species has been dead, the more effort it will take, the higher chance of inaccuracy... Short of gaining post-cognition, I would not be able to guarantee that they'd be exactly the same." Though... given a sufficient amount of time, chances are that I would eventually stumble upon a setting where either time travel or post-cognition was not only possible, but something I could replicate.

I've stumbled upon RTS settings three times so far, so... Maybe Achron?

If I'm limited to just RTS settings, anyway. Three is a rather small sample pool; for all I know, I could hit Terminator. Or even Back to the Future.

I hope I don't hit Doctor Who, though. That's one place where I'd be shit out of luck.

"Even with the intuitive aptitude from your teachings, Altea, I could only make them similar." I continued seamlessly. "And that is part of the reason why I am unsure of doing this. Any species that I seed would only be facsimiles of the original. There's also the fact that even if I did make perfect copies, they'd be just that; copies. The original would still be dead. Thus; do I create facsimiles of the originals so that they might continue to exist in some form, or do I not, and leave the dead to be remembered?"

Altea took a sip from her drink -a Masari equivalent of wine-, giving a considering hum.

"The only context I have on this matter is Mirabel." The Founder stated.

"Who has died repeatedly, and who you have cloned every single time." I noted. "But that is a different matter, isn't it? Mirabel is Quyion."

The Founder nodded. "Novus has a connection to Mirabel. These other species are unrelated."

"Yes." I took a sip from my glass.

Interesting taste on the Masari wine.

I held it in front of me, looking the crystalline lattice of its molecules, noting every single imperfection, every single slightly out of place atom, every single spinning electron, every single nucleus, bound protons and neutrons...

"It is unlikely that I would do it." The Founder stated. "It is unlikely that Novus would restore another species. Even the decision to revive Mirabel was made with more emotion than I care to admit. We sought guidance, and the comfort that at least one of our creators would still live." He paused for a moment. "Mirabel's first death... shook us severely."

I nodded.

"Personally..." Altea set her glass down, looking at me. "I would refrain."

I looked up to her.

"Admittedly, I am biased in this situation." She shook her head, slowly. "The Hierarchy's ascension to power was the fault of the Masari-"

"It really wasn't."

"I view it as the fault of the Masari." She continued. "Our mistake lead to their destruction. If I were not capable of restoring them to exactly what they were before, then I would not do it." She looked up for a moment. "In my view, any Masari creating something that is similar to, but different than them would only be an attempt to hide the mistakes of the past." She shook her head slowly, again. "In my view, at least. And only for the Masari. That is my bias- you, who did not commit our mistake, are fully free to do as you wish."

I gave a considering hum.

"Thank you."

I guess... not, then.

"A question."

I looked up, glancing at Altea. "Yes?"

"How many species still live in this galaxy?"

"Six hundred and thirty seven." Less than half... "The Hierarchy made a point of targeting probable life-bearing planets first." The closest one was about 242 light years away. "Some of them are even pretty advanced."

Not advanced enough to stop the Hierarchy. Few could pose a threat to even the Novus, much less the Hierarchy.

"Though none of them could pose a threat to the Hierarchy." I took another slip. "Thankfully, they'll never have to test themselves against them." Because the Hierarchy was very, very dead.

Just in case, I'd even indexed them, cataloguing their genetic code, culture, technologies, planet, natures...

The data I'd gathered ensure that I could re-develop their entire biosphere from nothing if I wanted to. I'd catalogued literally hundreds of alien biospheres...

And that wasn't even counting the biospheres that lacked sapient species.

"I'll be leaving soon." I shifted the topic. "My self-appointed task here is done, and... well, I've always been prone to wanderlust." I wanted to explore, to seek out, to obtain and admire and interact...

Ripped from my old life, thrust into this one. A cruelty and a gift in the same moment.

I held my hands out, golden light briefly gathering before condensing into three separate items, three small, chrome, black, and blue communicators.

Two floated to Altea and the Founder, settling on the table in front of them.

"Communicators." I answered the unspoken question. "Should you ever wish to contact me."

The third came to hover by my side. That one was for Orlok.

The Founder took his in a hand, examining it. Altea merely slipped hers into her dress, hiding it in an unseen pocket. "Thank you."

I smiled, before standing up. "Have a nice day, you two." I tucked the chair in, and then walked out.

I should get a hat. Something classy...

I hummed aloud.

Yeah.

Yeah...

92

Orlok was in the middle of inventorying the contents of the Command Ships when I teleported in.

"So I'll be leaving, soon." Was the first thing I said.

Orlok turned around, facing me.

The communicator floated forwards, settling on the console that Orlok had been working on. "A communicator." I stated. "Should you wish to contact me."

He picked it up, delicately holding it with his Crusher Claw. "I see."

I nodded, before vanished again.

One last visit...

"General." I greeted, taking a seat opposite of the man.

He was in a restaurant, currently nursing a cup of strong coffee.

"Drich." He grunted. "You want something?"

"In a manner of speaking." I slid a pair of communicators across the table to him.

A raised eyebrow was his response.

"Communicators." Which I had said far too many times.

"Communicators for who, exactly?"

"Me, general." I smiled. "Both will allow somebody to talk to me. The first is for whoever you wish to give it to. Maybe a governmental figure, for when your species gets back on its feet, whatever." I'd restored a lot of the damage that the Hierarchy had done, but...

Well, lost lives are still lost.

"The other is for you." He took a sip of his coffee at that. "I like you. You're one of the few who, in the middle of an alien invasion, had the chutzpah to pick up a minigun and lead a resistance movement. I can admire that."

It took a special kind of crazy to do that.

"This'll be the last time we see you?" He asked.

"Maybe." I shrugged. "I might come back, I might not. Either way; have a nice day, general."

My Warp Chasm finished construction, a Wormhole tearing open above it.

Unnecessary, yes- But it was the point of the matter.

Sure, I could just build another body on the other side, or transfer my consciousness across, or whatever, but I wanted walk back.

I held Little1's Avatar against me, my arms wrapped around his chest.

"A little over seven months." I noted. "Time to go off again, what do you think?"

He nodded.

"Pick a star."

He looked up, eyes flicking over night sky of Exapol, before pointing at one.

"The fourth closest?" I asked.

He nodded again.

"Well then, let's see where we go this time."

Halfway across the planet, an accelerator array activated.

And so it begins again.

A flash of purple light heralded my arrival in yet another backwater planet, another world undoubtedly filled with interesting things.

What awaits me this time, I couldn't help but wonder.

Strange technologies (That I could steal assimilate)?

Interesting plots (That I could derail)?

Complex peoples (Who I could meet)?

Oh, I can barely even wait~

My sensors identified thousands of objects, a number of floating, oddly shaped objects in the upper stratosphere. Beneath them, hovering at 7 kilometres above the ground, were yet more objects-

Which, now that I'm looking at them, I recognized as Cradle airships.

Cradles...

Armored Core: For Answer.

Heh.

Heheh.

Pfftahahahahahahaha!

Oh dear, I'll be having a lot of fun here~

I took a moment to remember the world of Armored Core.

4, and For Answer specifically, as the games constituted multiple different universes.

What to say about it?

Well, it was a shithole.

To start... not going too far into detail; massive overpopulation had led to resources and food being stretched thin, which led to civil unrest, terrorism, and, ultimately, violence.

Governments, already on the verge of collapse and unable to control their populations, were destroyed in the event known as the National Dismantlement War, where six powerful companies temporarily joined forces and took over, installing a system known as the Pax Economica; where loyalty and service to a company guaranteed food and survival, at the cost of much personal freedom.

Shit, already rolling downhill, hit the fan when the corporations that had briefly allied separated, engaging each other in a cold war that led to even more death and destruction.

Until, ultimately, things came to a head and all-out war erupted, an event known as the Lynx War.

The Lynx War fucked up the already fucked up situation even further, as it led to massive amounts of Kojima contamination being spilled absolutely fucking everywhere, rendering much of the surface uninhabitable.

Desperate for a solution, the remaining companies built the Cradle System, a large number of floating airships that housed the majority of Earth's remaining population, 20 million in each airship, several airships in each Cradle.

Unfortunately, some poor schmucks got left behind, which prompted a number of Lynx -the mercenary pilots of the NEXTS- to form an organisation known as ORCA.

At some point or another, the companies joined together to create the League of Ruling Companies, ostensibly to foster peace and order.

However, as the companies were collectively dumber than a sack of bricks and more greedy than an entire murder of particularly avaricious crows, that didn't happen.

The League, meant to represent the collective opinion of the corporations, instead was usually a front for one in particular; Omer Science, which, of course, prompted the other companies to act alone and continue fucking themselves and each other over.

Also at some point or another, one company developed and manufactured the Assault Cells, floating weapons platforms, and a way to prevent the other companies from getting into space.

The other companies promptly did exactly the same thing, until, in the end, there were so fucking many Assault Cells that nobody was getting into space.

Which is a problem for a simple reason.

The Cradle Airships hover at 7 kilometres above the ground, because everything below is heavily polluted.

Only, the power systems, collectively referred to as Arteria, that supply the Cradles with energy, necessary to allow them to remain flying above the ground, is also causing massive amounts of pollution.

As the pollution grows more and more severe, the Cradles will have to rise further and further into the air.

Where the Assault Cells are waiting to shoot them down.

I definitely had my work cut out for me here, didn't I?

93

Well, not really.

It wasn't like they had much that could actually threaten me.

And if I operated even remotely competently, they really wouldn't stand a chance.

Anyway...

Goals.

What do I want?

Technology, obviously. Wouldn't take too long, everybody here was planet-bound, and being planet-bound ensured that I could get access to everything in the next... oh, 8 hours or so.

Ensuring the survival of the civilian populace. Bit more difficult, but... Well, no, that was easily done. Protecting the Cradles would ensure their immediate survival.

Long term, however...

Bit more complicated.

So many things to do.

...

Though before I get going, I really should find out where in the timeline I am.

It would make things...

Much more organized.

But...

Where to land?

Somewhere away from everyone, undoubtedly. Someplace where the crash of my re-entry pod would go unnoticed.

Hmm.

The ocean?

Yeah... That'll work. After I slow down a little, of course.

My arrival was fairly smooth, all things considered.

I'd crashed into the ocean at a fairly gentle velocity, my re-entry pod disintegrating into nanobots around me.

Afterwards, I simply sank.

Right down to the bottom of the ocean.

Hidden from everything.

Heh.

Not that it mattered, I could have been sitting on top of a Cradle airship and they would have never known unless I wanted them to.

My Fabricator glowed as a wave of nanobots spilled out, swimming through the ocean, over to a small portion of the seabed, beginning to form into a Hub Network.

Soon.

A couple hours, and it would spread over the planet. I would have access to everything on the ground, and then some.

I couldn't wait~

But what to do, honestly?

I had an idea. I wasn't entirely sure whether I should go through with it or not, but I had an idea.

One that could prove... simultaneously entertaining, and lucrative.

Not in the sense of money -I had no use for it, obviously-, but in achieving my goals.

Just had to... play the game for a little, so to speak.

Hours passed.

My Hub Network slowly infiltrated every location on the ground.

Which really meant; everything of nominal interest.

Including the databases of the Companies that ruled this planet.

Data, data, data...

So wonderful.

All mine, now.

Things of importance:

First; technology.

They had a lot of interesting stuff.

From Arms Forts, to Normals, to Muscle Tracers, to, of course, NEXTs.

NEXT technology was advanced and powerful. Surprisingly efficient, too. Two things separated them from the Normals, MTs, and Arms Forts; the Actuator Complexity System, and the Allegorical Manipulation System.

The first was an advanced mechanical design that gave the NEXTs an incredible range of movement and fine control, while the latter was what truly turned them into utterly dangerous machines.

Effectively, the pilot's nerves would be directly linked with their machine's electronics, allowing them lightning fast reaction times and almost perfect manipulation of the system.

A lot of things were required to make that work. A pilot would need a good deal of compatibility with the AMS system in order to operate it for lengthened periods of time, as the use of the system could cause a considerable degree of psychological stress on the pilot.

Exceptions existed, but they weren't really important at the moment.

The AMS also doubled as a life support system, which, combined with a not inconsiderable degree of genetic engineering and bodily enhancement, enabled the pilot to tolerate and survive the extreme G-forces and physical trauma a NEXT could incur through typical operation.

There was a small, problematic side effect involved. Not too big of a deal; there was just a feedback issue where, should a NEXT sustain critical damage, the pilot's nervous system could shut down, leading to almost certain death.

That was sarcasm, if you couldn't tell.

Anyway, that's why a NEXT is dangerous. MTs and Normals both simply aren't fast enough, or capable of reacting quick enough to the average NEXT, not even considering their Primal Armour.

Primal Armour was another interesting technology.

A subset of Kojima Technology, which was part of the reason that the NEXTs surpassed their predecessors, the Normals, so easily.

The various companies used it for a lot of things. Energy generation, defence, offense...

Too many, really. Especially as its use was what had fucked up this planet so badly...

Continuing; Generators operated off Hydrogen fuel cells, acting as a nuclear fusion generator. A separate, particularly tricky and quite clever process caused a decay in the resultant hot helium atoms back into a single hydrogen atom, and Kojima Particles -each of which massed only slightly more than an electron-, ultimately releasing yet more energy.

Tricky.

Clever.

The lowest quality generators could approach nearly 4% conversion of mass into energy. The highest quality approached 18%.

Very impressive.

If not for the fact that Kojima Particles were incredibly radioactive, highly corrosive, and utterly poisonous, I might have even praised it as a useful source of energy.

Unfortunately, those very traits of Kojima Particles were what had led to the companies deciding to abuse them.

Primal Armour was the effort to turn the dangerous Kojima Particles into a shield, by using the particle's own properties to their advantage.

See, Kojima Particles have a habit of turning semi-solid when interacting with each other. Ergo, by releasing enough Kojima Particles into the air and shaping them into a thin, spherical shape, one would have a wall of Kojima Particles surrounding them.

A fast moving object, like, say, a bullet, would hit that wall, and the energy of the object would cause the Kojima Particles to condense, and thus turn semi-solid.

The effect was two-fold. First, the solid wall of particles slowed down the object, and second, the corrosive properties of the Kojima Particles would rapidly erode it, rendering it much less dangerous.

As a result, Primal Armour would drastically reduce the damage a NEXT would suffer from solid-shell weaponry.

Key point there, solid-shell weaponry. Plasma and Laser Weaponry both had a considerable ability to penetrate Primal Armour, as the former had much lower mass and dealt damage mainly through heat and radiation, and the latter had irrelevant amount of mass and thus simply bypassed it entirely.

A reverse of the Primal Armour existed, in the form of Assault Armour, which is basically taking Primal Armour and shoving it outwards so that the wall of Kojima Particles can wreck everything nearby.

A lot more stuff to go into, but that bit was what was immediately important.

The second thing that was important was the time period.

I was in... fairly early, all things considered.

As in, the Spirit of Motherwill is still intact and operational- though not for much longer, as Omer Science Technology was in the final stages of developing a plan of attack against it.

Still, that was quite a bit of time.

Lots of time, really. A lot of freedom for my actions.

My idea was viable.

And I suppose I should actually explain what it was, shouldn't I?

Well, to start;

It was both a fairly simple and fairly silly thing, really. See, I had the idea of presenting a front through which I could operate out in the open, so to speak, while still hiding everything in reserve.

Chances are it wouldn't work out as well as I'm hoping, but the ruse doesn't need to stay up for long.

Since the corporations of the League ruled the world, I planned to establish my own... 'company', let's say.

Naturally, it would be shrouded in secrets and nobody would ever really be sure of anything about it- but that was beside the point.

The point was to establish my own little theatre of operations, and, at the same time, push my goals forward.

Since I didn't intend to contribute to the current problems of this planet, I'd need to do a little bit of re-designing.

Kojima was one of the main problems. And I think I had an idea on where to start with on decreasing it.

"Intelligence failure? Intelligence failure?!"

Oh boy.

Today was going to be a long day, he just knew.

"We missed an entire fucking compound being set up!" His superior yelled.

"In an extremely remote, highly polluted area." He pointed out.

"Exactly!" The shrill, annoying voice continued yelling. "Any construction in that area should have been such a massive undertaking that nobody could have missed it!"

His name was Damien. He was employee IS-008874 of Omer Science. He was oft described as a simple, unassuming man.

His direct superior was Allison. She was employee SM-IS-000445 of Omer Science. She was oft described as an intelligent, hardworking woman with curves in all the right places.

They worked in the Intelligence Services.

It was not often a rewarding job.

Today, especially.

By sheer chance, one of Omer Science's scout drones had malfunctioned, taking it out a bit further than it was normally programmed.

Nobody had really expected anything to be found, but since the drone was old and already on the edge of its lifespan, nobody had cared.

Everybody had quickly started caring when the scout drone flew over the Alaskan wastes, locating an unidentified facility in the process.

They'd had all of 5 seconds to stare at it before the drone had finally died, cutting off the feed.

The image of it was still frozen on the screen next to them; demonstrating a tall, dark grey, deep blue building, a number of golden lines highlighting it and providing a contrast against the surface.

Etched into the front, also in golden letters, were the words 'Raven's Nest'.

"The boss is going to be pissed." Allison rubbed her temples.

"On the plus side, at least we won't have to be the ones to inform him?" He offered.

Allison sighed, before shrugging. "Yeah. That's Jeff's problem now."

He never liked Jeff anyways.

94

I'll admit, it actually took quite a bit of effort developing what I wanted.

Mostly because of the limit I placed- without which, it was very, very easy.

That limit effectively boiled down to 'Anything that this planet was theoretically capable of doing on their own, without the introduction of outside technologies'.

A fairly... generous limitation, all things considered.

Anyway, Kojima was the main problem contributing to the destruction of this world.

That in mind, and limitation on hand, I had attempted two things.

First; to match or surpass the energy generation that could be achieved, while maintaining either minimal or no Kojima out.

Second; to find a way to reduce the amount of Kojima contamination, and restore liveability to an existing area.

It was... actually quite hard for the first.

The Helium to Hydrogen and Kojima Particles decay was efficient when it came to converting mass into energy, and, per unit of mass without dipping into more esoteric sciences, antimatter was more or less the next step up.

Useful amounts of antimatter, however, was hard to contain with the technology they had, and harder still to generate.

Instead, I simply pushed the efficiency of the reaction to the extreme.

The highest efficiency the corporations could reach pushed 18% conversion of mass into energy, which I had said before. My version, relying on materials science that pushed the very edges of the theoretical capability of the corporations, pushed 44%.

The result meant extremely low Kojima Particle production. Only 6% of the mass converted into them, instead of 32%.

That 6%, however, was still too high for my tastes.

Thus came the second system, one which took cues from the concept of Primal Armour.

Primal Armour shaped the Kojima Particles into a sphere through a process known as a 'Rectification', capturing them in an electromagnetic field and using an electrical charge to maintain the integrity of sphere.

I'd done more or less the same thing, except instead of ejecting the particles into the atmosphere for use in Primal Armour, I'd captured them internally in a very, very powerful electromagnetic field, sufficient enough to condense into a very small space.

From there, I was relying on the Kojima Particle's own properties, which were best described as being all kinds of what the fuck. Kojima Particles, when reacting with... pretty much anything, emitted photons. Normally invisible, once they achieved a considerable density, this glow would appear a sickly green, and render clumps of Kojima Particles visible to the naked eye.

An important thing to note is that, if it keeps that up long enough, it will eventually decay entirely into photons. Not a quick process by any means, but it was a way to decrease the number of Kojima Particles floating around.

With the relatively small amount of Kojima Particles my generator released, it would be possible to contain them all inside these Kojima traps until they decayed completely, leaving the surrounding environment unharmed.

Furthermore, for cleaning up already existing Kojima contamination, I had designed much larger Kojima traps, appearing as large spikes stretching into the air. The principle was pretty much the same, save that they could generate electromagnetic fields of sufficient strength to draw in Kojima Particles from the entire surrounding area, removing the contamination and leaving the particles themselves safely contained within the field.

I had a plan to slowly leak the designs of the latter to the corporations. Since the world was a crapsack, they would eventually start building them, if only because it would be cheaper to revitalise areas with those spikes than it would be to continue building more Cradles.

Anyway- those weren't the only things I'd been working on.

I should probably stop there, though. Otherwise, I'd be continuing for quite some time.

Back to my plan;

The 'establish a company' thing was more or less done, as was the 'discovery' of it.

Now, I only had a few things left to do before I entered the stage.

"You heard about the new Lynx?" He asked.

"Yeah." His co-worker grumbled.

His name was Michael. He worked in Global Armaments' spy agency.

His co-worker was Corey. He also worked in Global Armament's spy agency.

If someone were to tell the average worker that, their response would be 'GA has a spy agency?'

"Just dropped out of nowhere and registered with Collared. Didn't give names or anything, just registered for missions."

"Tch. Typical Independent Lynx action." His co-worker scoffed.

"Except for one thing," Michael continued. "An organisation name. Get this: Raven's nest."

Corey blinked. "You're shitting me."

"Nope!" Michael grinned. "Out and out announced it."

"Huh." Corey looked to the side, considering. "Omer's going to blow a gasket."

"Yeah, it's great." Michael stretched a bit. "Really, though? How ballsy do you have to be to just out and out state that. It'll be drawing so much interest and scrutiny..."

"Maybe that was the plan?" Corey speculated. "They couldn't hide any longer, so they announced their presence in a way that would draw a hell of a lot attention. They got a Lynx, and if the Lynx is up to snuff, that'll rake in the credits."

"Or it could bring Omer down on their heads." Michael pointed out. "Alaska is smack dab in the middle of Omer's area of influence."

"Not really." Corey shook his head. "GA could take the area if they wanted, but Alaska's a wasteland, and nobody wants it. It's only under Omer's influence because they're the closest. And if Omer did try to project into that area, GA would fall upon them because that would put them uncomfortably close to some GA facilities."

"Yeah. Which brings up the question of who they are and how they managed to set up in that area." Michael hummed. "Though there's also Omer's plan to attack the Spirit of Motherwill. That's meant to be coming up pretty soon, yeah?"

"Apparently." Corey agreed. "That'll take the heat off Raven's Nest for a while, at least. Think they planned it?"

"Nah. There's building out in the middle of nowhere, and then there's planning a reveal. Nobody could plan that. It was just luck."

"Well, one thing's for certain. Things are about to get interesting."

95

As a consequence of how my desire to not contribute at all to the pollution of this world, the NEXT that I had designed was much different from the standard.

Without outputting Kojima Particles on its own, it would be unable to generate Primal Armour on demand. Subsequently, without Primal Armour, it would be unable to Over-boost, and without Kojima Particles, it would be unable to Quick-boost.

At least... not in the traditional sense.

Lacking the defensive ability offered by Primal Armour, I had instead equipped it with extremely high-end armour, drawing from my knowledge of materials science- though still operating under the restriction of 'what the corporations were theoretically capable of'.

The end result was an extremely durable, heat resistant, yet lightweight compound, providing good protection against solid shell, plasma and laser weaponry.

Absolutely nothing compared to what I could do if I wasn't restricting myself, but hey.

The boosters equipped to it had been overhauled to deal with the massive amount of energy it generated, far and away surpassing any other NEXT. The basic, main boosters generated nearly thrice the thrust of the already unreasonably powerful high-end thrusters available to a NEXT, something that was repeated with the side and back boosters.

I didn't want a NEXT that could fly, I wanted a NEXT that could dance in the skies.

For Over-boosting and Quick-boosting, I'd done a little different.

Beginning with the latter, for very brief, needed bursts of speeds, I'd equipped the boosters with the ability to 'overcharge', pushing beyond safe limits for that extra burst of speed. It could sustain that, but doing so was a very good way to utterly wreck the boosters in question, relegating it to short-lived bursts. The effect, and ultimate result, was the same as Quick-boosting.

Over-boosting, however, was very different. What I'd done was equip my NEXT with a large, extremely powerful and durable booster on the back, which would happily allow it to break the sound barrier with ease.

The end result made for a Next that was extremely fast, lightweight, and highly durable. Naturally, that meant it was very dangerous.

As for aesthetics...

Well, I drew inspiration from three sources, the first being the TYPE-LAHIRE, the second being the Nine-ball Seraph, and the third being the 03-AALIYAH.

The result was a lean, agile look, good for both reducing air resistance and just appearing completely fucking awesome, in my humble opinion.

I'd been half tempted to take inspiration from the 00-ARETHA, but the only thing I'd really liked about the ARETHA was its massive weapons.

Anyway, that was my NEXT.

I hadn't even mentioned all the fun little goodies I'd stuffed in.

I didn't have a name for it yet. But I'm sure I could come up with one eventually.

"Here's the mission."

Two days was all it took.

"The client is GA America. Your target is a Liliana insurgent group."

Ah, Liliana.

Possibly among the only group on this planet that I wouldn't mind wiping out to a man.

"This particular group has been raiding GA supply convoys. They're a fairly small group, but they have a few Normals available to them." A brief, amused chuckle rang out. "Shouldn't be too much of a problem for a NEXT."

Those poor insurgents.

"That's everything you need to know. Give a good show, and you'll attract a lot of opportunities your way."

GA had offered a transport for my NEXT. It was something that all the companies did, actually, in order to get the NEXTs to where they needed to go.

I'd refused.

I had my own transport.

With nothing to do while my NEXT was on the way, I identified the Liliana insurgents.

It was, as the mission briefing had stated, a small group. 13 of them piloting Normals, all stolen, 6 more in MTs, also all stolen.

The insurgents themselves were pretty typical of Liliana. All of them had murders and other violent crimes to their names, an entry requirement for Liliana.

Liliana wasn't a big group, but it was extremely radical and anti-establishment, the members committed to violence for violence's sake.

Subsequently, unwilling to negotiate and causing disruption wherever they went, the League often attempted to destroy them.

Sometimes, a group would cause enough chaos that the League would hire Lynx to wipe them out.

This group... hadn't actually done that. They were well on their way to doing that, yes, but they hadn't yet made a big name for themselves just yet.

It was, rather obviously, a test. They were hiring me so they could get an idea of my skill, my tactics, and the power of my NEXT.

One moment, they had been relaxing, waiting in preparation for another GA convoy.

The next, a burst of light tore its way through their leader's Normal.

And everything went to hell in a handbasket.

Three more Normals and the six MTs were destroyed before they managed to get into cover, hiding behind some of the rocky outcroppings of the area, where several meters of earth would hopefully keep them safe from whatever was shooting at them.

After that, there was only an unnerving silence.

He flicked a switch, activating his radio -no point in keep it off if they had already been discovered, was there?-, only for the sound of static to come rushing out.

He cursed.

Jamming.

As if they weren't screwed enough already.

To the right, one of other Normals stuck an arm out of cover. He half expected it to be immediately blown off, but nothing happened.

What were they waiting for?

A ping on his radar caught his attention, and he glanced at it.

Nine small purple dots appeared, green lines tracing relative elevation, all of which were shrinking rapidly.

Missiles.

He had barely completed the though before the missiles struck, each one striking between the Normals, cover rendered useless.

There was a bright, white light.

And then, there was nothing at all.

96

That was easy.

Weapon prototype test, successful.

Minor note; Micro-missiles are fun. I should use more of them.

My NEXT shifted slightly, holding its laser rifle out to the side as it went through a cooling cycle.

The rifle was... actually a considerably advanced design, even in comparison to the already cutting-edge tech that my NEXT employed.

Mostly because I'd effectively taken a High Intensity Laser Rifle, drastically increased the energy efficiency, power, and heat management until I had a rifle that out-classed every NEXT-grade Laser Cannon in sheer destructive capability, 'ammo' capacity, and fire rate.

It... had been fairly easy, really.

See, with the sole exception of Laser Blade weaponry, every NEXT-grade Laser weapon used coolant in order to make sure that the weapon didn't overheat and melt itself. The coolant was pretty useful, but also pretty expensive, and once it was used up, using a laser weapon would almost certainly wreck it.

Hence, a limited 'ammo' pool.

It wasn't really something that I couldn't deal with, but I wanted a laser rifle with effectively infinite ammo, and so I made one.

There was one small problem.

Because I wasn't using the coolant, the rifle had to go through a cooling cycle in order to disperse the heat. Not something it needed to do often, but it couldn't continually, endlessly fire, either.

"So we learned nothing?"

"I wouldn't say nothing." She smiled. "We learned that their laser rifle has quite some range. And we have an idea on their tactics."

"One battle does not a tactical analysis make." Came the retort.

"I was referring more to the fact that they didn't engage Primal Armour."

"An... odd decision for a Lynx, admittedly. Normally they'd only ever turn it off when told to."

"So there's what we've got. This Lynx used long-ranged tactics, has missiles, and didn't bother with Primal Armour. Did they simply not see the insurgents as a threat, or is there some other reason?"

"We don't have enough information to say." A sigh.

"So, more missions. It's not that hard."

"No. But it is money."

It'd take some time for the next mission to come. Maybe I'd be lucky and there'd be more than a single request, with each company looking to learn more, but...

I was, perhaps, slightly impatient.

Even when the missions did come, I had no guarantee of them being interesting.

So much time.

So little things to do.

My metaphorical fingers itched.

Through the eyes of my Avatar, I stared a hologram in the middle of the room.

My right hand was in the air, a shifting mass of Light and Dark energies hovering above it, constantly changing between forms. Right now, it was in the form of an enneract, and moving on to a dekeract.

Just practicing, really.

Little1's Avatar sat in my lap, also looking at the hologram.

It showed an image of the planet, as well as everything I'd located on the planet- which, of course, was everything.

"These corporations are very silly." Little1 leaned against me.

The pulsating energy winked out as I hugged him. "Yes they are."

The hologram shifted slightly, highlighting the network of Assault Cells, cascading them in a deep red.

"How did they even manage to set these up?" He asked. "Why didn't the Assault Cells target the other Assault Cells when they were being launched?"

A good question, actually. "Well, when they were first starting to build them, each corporation first covered their own territory with them." The hologram shifted slightly, the red replaced with various colours- representing each of the companies that had built them. "Of course, since this was before the National Dismantlement War, 'territory' actually meant 'anywhere they were willing to pay to put a satellite up'." As a result, clusters of Assault Cells belonging to different corporations were fucking everywhere, instead of grouped up nicely.

"Back then, each corporation also had their own control system for their Assault Cells." Another shift, this time highlighting several points on the planet, where each of the facilities had been. "The system was programmed to shoot down everything that wasn't designated as allowed."

"One of the stupid things about it, however, is that pretty much everybody was using more or less the same design, with maybe a few differences." It had been an efficient design, really. Especially considering they would be able to last decades, and they'd needed to be quick about setting them up.

It was mostly that last thing that had kept the designs standardized.

"Anyway, like I said, this was before the National Dismantlement War. Since the various governments still had some actual power -however little- at the time, the corporations worked together on it. They advertised it as an anti-nuclear missile system, designed to ensure that nuclear weapons couldn't be used as the Assault Cells would shoot down ICBMs." It was technically true, too. It could shoot down ICBMs.

It was just designed to shoot down a lot more than just that.

"Since they were working together, the Assault Cells were programmed not to shoot down the other Assault Cells." Which was how the web had been set up in the first place. "Unfortunately for everybody, the National Dismantlement War happened, and that spelled the end of the corporation's cooperation. Equally unfortunately for everybody, nobody realised that the Assault Cells had a programming flaw, one that wasn't corrected or discovered beforehand because of their haste to set the network up in the first place."

The thousands of coloured spots on the hologram shifted, transforming into a uniform grey. "The corporations had set their Assault Cells to register other Assault Cells as 'allies', and thus not something to be shot down. A problem arose when they attempted to change that, and set the other Assault Cells as 'enemies', causing the Assault Cells to get stuck in a programming loop."

Little1 twisted, looking at me with disbelief written on his face. "What?"

I grinned. "Oh, I'm serious. The coding was apparently written over the course of three days, and didn't get much testing." They were very hasty in deploying the Assault Cells. And they'd cut as many corners as they could in deploying them.

"Anyway," I continued. "That loop stopped the Assault Cells' processors cold, so the corporations couldn't even use their control systems to fix the problem."

He stared at me, before slowly turning around. "How..."

"Never underestimate the depths of stupidity, nor the heights of greed. The corporations are prone to both." I hummed.

"You know, you could access the information yourself." But he hadn't. And I knew why, too.

He nodded, seemingly shy. "I know. But I like spending time with you."

I smiled, and hugged him closer.

97

Time did as time does, and passed.

Surprisingly little of interest happened. I got the occasional mission, which inevitably boiled down to 'explode some Normals and MTs', plus/minus some occasional other targets.

It was boring.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait that long for something interesting to finally happen.

Something interesting being this mission.

"You're being called in to give support." The voice of Omer's messenger spoke. "Originally, the Spirit of Motherwill was to be attacked by only a single Lynx. However, the presence of Iakchos and Champion Champs has changed that."

Bernard and Felix Foundation had caught wind of Omer's plot to destroy the Spirit of Motherwill. I didn't actually have anything to do with that, they just got lucky.

Subsequently, they'd assigned Iakchos to the Spirit of Motherwill.

"Neither are a large threat. Iakchos is a former NEXT engineer, and he doesn't have much experience in the way of combat. However, he wields a powerful sniper cannon with considerable proficiency, and thus excels at long-ranged combat."

Champion Champs, however...

Well, he piloted a NEXT and equipped it with demolition tools, some missiles, and a grenade launcher. His psychological profile, his tendency to growl, and the fact that he equipped his NEXT with demolition tools, led to most being convinced he was insane.

They probably weren't wrong.

"Champion Champs is... Champion Champs. What he does on the battlefield is a mystery, and his tactics can change at any moment. However, his weapons, and his NEXT have not changed since they were first seen. He isn't usually a threat, but don't get into close combat, and always keep an eye him."

Champion Champs had shown up at the Spirit of Motherwill one day. Nobody had noticed him coming, nor had any idea what he was doing there.

They still didn't.

The Vanguard Overed Boost system slowly lowered, the technicians working to attach it to the back of my NEXT.

Not too far away, the same thing was happening to my 'partner'.

Strayed.

Funny how those things went, isn't it?

"So, do you have a name?" A pleasant, yet oddly severe voice asked.

I recognized it.

Serene Haze, also known as Kasumi Sumika.

Hmm.

Oh, why not?

"That one isn't going to answer you, I'm afraid." I spoke. "Hasn't ever said anything, really." I gave a slight sigh. "It is a pleasure to meet you, fellow Operator."

"I know the feeling. Serene Haze."

"Drich. Yes, I know, weird name." I hummed.

I checked the mission timer. 40 seconds left.

"I wasn't going to say anything." I could hear the smile in her voice. "Always nice to hear a friendly voice."

"Agreed." I said, enthusiastically.

20 seconds left.

The technicians were moving out of the way, the walkways doing the same.

My NEXT leaned forwards, counterbalancing the weight of the VOB unit attached to its back. Strayed, to my side, did the same thing.

"Good luck out there."

"Same. Though I doubt you'll need it."

10.

"We'll make sure Iakchos and Champion Champs stay off your back." I stated, both to Strayed and to Kasumi.

Catapults, much like those built into aircraft carriers used for assisting take-off, slid back, attaching to the feet of our NEXTs.

5.

Panels slid up, thrusters engaging, but not quite going full burst just yet.

3.

2.

1.

The catapults activated, pulling our NEXTs forwards, thrusters pushing to maximum in the same moment.

Time to fly~

My NEXT shifted, legs bending backwards while the arms splayed out, locking into what was about the most aerodynamic shape I could achieve with a giant humanoid robot with an equally large clump of rockets attached to its back.

I gave a slight hum as we lifted in the air.

Here we go~

And then, the VOB activated.

Cruising speed... 2300 kilometres per hour. Strayed... 2100 kilometres per hour.

Engagement distance... 30 kilometres.

Arrival time... 46.95652~ seconds, 51.42857~ seconds.

Not counting dodging manoeuvers. That could easily add several decaseconds to the arrival time.

"Careful. They have you in their sights." I said.

Effective range of Spirit of Motherwill's main weapons...

Well, they could hit a NEXT sized target moving over twice the speed of sound with near-perfect accuracy from tens of kilometres away. So...

Way the fuck too high.

My NEXT drifted slightly to the side, allowing, a second or two later, one of the shells from the aforementioned main guns to scream past.

Strayed... Quick Boosted to the side, shedding speed but dodging the shell aimed for him nevertheless.

Those shells would fuck up a NEXT something fierce if they hit. Needless to say, neither of us intended to get hit.

The sensors on my NEXT weren't nearly as good as the ones on any other unit in my army, but, even from this distance, I could identify the Spirit of Motherwill, and also what it was currently playing host to.

There were a lot of Normals. Some MTs, a few Helicopters here and there...

And, of course, both Champion Champs and Iakchos.

The former of whom was... pacing back and forth, and the latter of whom was wielding large, distinctly non-standard, oversized sniper-rifles, which were pointed at us.

He was actually kind of hard to see. His NEXT, Anima, was partially hidden behind some Normals, and the ECM wasn't helping.

He...

Actually, all of his weapons were sniper rifles. Both of his arm weapons were 050ANSR models, and the back weapons were 050ANSC models.

I guess he really likes long range.

Shame it wouldn't help him.

I let go of the thrust keeping my NEXT so high in the air, dipping closer to the ground. Iakchos' position ensured that once we got close enough, he wouldn't be able to shoot us, since we'd have the Spirit of Motherwill's... aircraft carrier extension things in the way.

Did those things actually have a name?

Don't think so...

Bleh, side-tracked.

Actually, that is an awful lot of Normals on those... wing things.

Well, that's what I brought the micro-missiles for.

The launchers on my NEXT's shoulder shifted, aiming forwards before firing, sending off a dozen missiles each.

They spread out, curving outwards and then inwards towards the Spirit of Motherwill.

They got about halfway there before the second stage activated, each of the missiles splitting open to reveal almost a dozen more missiles hidden within, each one launching out and streaking towards the Spirit of Motherwill.

That should clear the way a little.

98

My micro-missiles found plentiful targets.

And with plentiful targets came plentiful destruction.

The funny thing is, I still didn't have as many missiles as they did Normals.

But that didn't matter too much.

Most Normals weren't equipped for indefinite flight time, so that naturally meant they were concentrated on the Spirit of Motherwill's decks -DECKS! That's the fucking word!-.

Concentrated together.

Against missiles.

My missiles.

That was not, by any stretch of the word, a good place to be.

If they had been split up, far apart, my missiles might have only destroyed a single Normal each. But they were close, and the result was that much more damaging.

288 explosions came as my missiles detonated, each one destroying at least 1 Normal, the vast majority taking 3 or even 4 Normals, clearing entire decks of Normals.

But not all of them. I hadn't released that many missiles, and there were simply far too many Normals to get them all in a single salvo.

Still, they were significantly depleted, cutting down on the firepower arrayed against us.

Distance remaining... 10 kilometres. VOB purge in 9.8613 kilometres.

The retaliation came swiftly, and in two forms.

First was the Spirit of Motherwill releasing its own missiles, batteries releasing a veritable horde, the vast majority of which was targeted at me.

Second; Iakchos chose that moment to open fire.

Honestly, I would have cared more about the first if they'd targeted Strayed- mostly because, aside from dodging like hell, which he could do, he had no other way to really deal with all the missiles.

Myself, on the other hand...

Well, I could dodge, though the massive assembly of rockets attached to the back of my NEXT would impede that. Still, it was a possibility, one that I would have had to resort to if I didn't have other options.

If I didn't.

But I did.

Several of them, in fact.

Ah, the only problem with having so many options.

Picking which one you want to use...

EMP, maybe?

His eyes flicked over the Spirit of Motherwill, examining the Arms Fort closely for weakness.

As the briefing had stated, it was an odd mix between nearly indestructible and strikingly vulnerable.

Thick, massive armour covered the Motherwill's entire form, strong and tough enough that even most Arms Fort-grade weaponry would have difficulty piercing it.

It could field enough Normals to give a considerably large army pause, enough to drown even the average Lynx in bodies and firepower.

Its missiles packed quite the punch, and the long ranged cannons that served as the Motherwill's main armament were typical of BFF; powerful, long ranged, and very, very dangerous. It was their specialty, after all.

And yet...

His eyes flicked over the guns, over the missile bays, over the Normals.

He'd seen its designs.

He knew the weaknesses. The cannons were not as heavily armoured as the rest of the Motherwill, and NEXT-grade weaponry could destroy them. Enough heat and kinetic force would cause the shells inside to detonate, which would start a chain reaction that would render the entire turret inoperable- and cause the Motherwill itself some considerable damage.

A similar problem plagued the missile bays, the storage inside not as well armoured as they should have been. Enough firepower, and they would detonate, damaging the structure, and also starting fires within the Motherwill.

Keep it up, and the internal fires would cause everything to melt and break, on top of forcing everybody inside to leave, or suffer smoke inhalation. If it continued too long, or became too intense, it might even cause the Motherwill's reactor to meltdown, an event that would almost certainly destroy the Spirit of Motherwill.

Perhaps the superstructure would survive, but not the rest of it.

It was, perhaps, typical of BFF. With their emphasis on extreme, long ranged firepower, they never believed anybody would survive long enough to make it close, which in most cases would be a fair assumption.

Not today.

Today it would cost them their Arms Fort.

Though...

First they would have to get around the missiles, and then they would have to get around the NEXTs.

Some minor disruption of his sensors pulled his attention to his current teammate, whose NEXT was current shifting, emitters and coils extending slightly from the black and blue armour.

The radar pulsed into chaotic static briefly, a powerful EMP pulse playing merry havoc on his sensors before the system overcame it.

In front of them, the missile swarm fell into a chaos of its own; the cheap, disposable guidance systems of the missiles fried from the pulse, rendering the vast majority useless- at least, certainly no threat to a NEXT.

Reliable allies. How rare.

Missile swarm... mostly taken care of.

EMP emitters receded back into the armour of my NEXT, hidden safely away again.

One threat partially neutralized, two more to go.

I drifted slightly to the left, allowing the fire of Iakchos' sniper cannon to drift past.

He was quite accurate, honestly. Even at this distance, he could hit a target moving at considerable speed. Unfortunately, this distance was also sufficient enough for the both of us to dodge, but hey, the fact that we had to dodge at all was impressive in its own right.

"VOB nearly depleted." I stated unnecessarily. "Target Iakchos first. Your partner can handle a few Normals."

The Spirit of Motherwill fired again, the cannons sending shells directly at us, and the missile silos releasing another wave of missiles.

I shifted out of the path of the first, and didn't even bother with the second. Our VOB units would purge before they made it to us, and without the massive assembly of rockets slowing us down, we were free to put our NEXTs' full agility to use in dodging.

Case in point; right now.

"VOB purging. Watch out."

The massive assembly of rockets broke apart, scattering to the sides, as much of the assembly being thrown away from the NEXT as possible.

Didn't matter too much.

My Over-booster activated, and my NEXT shot out of the rapidly slowing cloud of metal that was once a VOB unit.

I fired another set of missiles off just before I ducked underneath one of the Spirit of Motherwill's decks. It should destroy most of the Normals that still remained, and leave a path open for Strayed.

Now...

Come here Iakchos, we're going to have some fun.

99

My Over-Booster disengaged, inertia carrying me to the other side of the Spirit of Motherwill's deck. Half a dozen other boosters engaged, my NEXT spinning 180 degrees and gaining height.

Just before I came high enough to see the top of the deck, I Quick-Boosted to the side, and was rewarded with Iakchos' sniper cannons not burying a shell in my chest.

"Yeeaaargh!" Champion Champs shouted, Killdozer rushing forwards, Over-Boosters engaged and rapidly propelling the NEXT towards me, a slight green glow surrounding his NEXT from the condensing Kojima Particles. Both of his demo tools were at the ready, preparing to pummel me.

Who knows, maybe if they hit, they might have actually done some damage.

For me, the next moment passed slowly.

For them, my NEXT was little more than a blur of metal and colour as I struck at Champion Champs.

My thrusters disengaged, and my NEXT spent a brief moment in the air before it dropped to the surface of the Motherwill's deck, crouching as Killdozer came closer. The laser rifle in my left hand clamped to my leg, freeing the hand for a brief while.

The moment he was in range, the Boosters activated again, my NEXT lancing forwards with a sudden, swift strike towards Killdozer.

I spun to the side of him, ignoring his weakened Primal Armour for the moment, my left hand reaching out and grabbing his shoulder, penetrating partially into the armour to ensure the grip was solid enough. I began pulling back, spinning to the right and pulling the arm away from the body, an effort that would achieved nothing more than just redirecting Killdozer's direction if not for the fact that I activated the laser blade built into the wrist at that moment.

The activation was brief, a flash of brilliant white light that lasted only a tenth of a second, but brief as it may have been, it was long enough.

The wall of light sheared right through the thin, relatively unprotected joint between the core and the arm, coupling with the spin to rip the arm from the body.

My right arm rose, carefully aiming the laser rifle at Anima. At this distance, he couldn't dodge, and I couldn't miss.

"YEEEEE-!" Champion Champ's scream began just as I fired, a thin, focused and powerful beam of light lancing out straight towards Anima.

I didn't aim for the chest, no. The armour there was thick, heavy, strong enough to resist the firepower of my rifle, though not indefinitely. Instead, I aimed slightly lower, at the joint between the core and the legs.

While still quite protected, it didn't change the fact that it was much less armoured than the core itself, and thanks to the feedback from the AMS, certainly no less vital.

If I were less brokenly overpowered, this might not have been a worthwhile thing to pursue. I'd miss, or the armour would take the laser just fine.

But... Well. If I were less brokenly overpowered.

The thin beam seared through the out edge of the armour, the power of a much bigger gun focused on such a small area, with so little protection...

Was there every any doubt? Certainly not.

The spin shifted my aim, and I fired again, sending another burst of light directly into Anima's joint, though this one burning another hole slightly to the right of the already existing one, widening it and compromising the integrity of the joint even further.

Almost there.

For the third and last time, I fired again, another lance burning a hole halfway through the joint, severely damaging the support that held the core to the legs.

There we go.

I'd have to let the gun cool after this, firing thrice in less than half a second pushed right at the edges of its capabilities, but I'd still accomplished what I'd needed.

The joint was, not to put too fine a point on it, fucked. More than half had been violently seared away, and the rest wasn't far off considering the average G-Forces involved in NEXT-to-NEXT combat.

Assuming it would continue moving at all, that is. I did just fuck him up something fierce, after all.

My perception sped up again, time going from nearly halted to roughly normal.

"-EEAAARRGH!" Champion Champ's completed his scream even as Iakchos' own pained grunt came, the sound oddly muffled.

Oh well.

My spin completed as I grabbed my left laser rifle, the right one opening to the air and beginning to vent heat.

"DAAAMN YOU!" Champion Champs roared, his boosters activating and spinning him around, left arm swinging wildly.

I boosted backwards, effortlessly dodging the wild swing, before Quick-Boosting to the side as his grenade launcher fired, letting the ordinance sail harmlessly past me.

...

Well, harmless to me, anyway. There was a Normal in the grenade's path, and that guy was about to have a very bad day.

I rose into the air as Champion Champs turned again, grenade launcher lobbing another explosive at me, which accomplished exactly as much as the first. Well, less- there wasn't a Normal in this one's path.

"COME BACK HERE SO I CAN USE YOUR ENTRAILS AS A SKIPPING ROPE!" Champion Champs howled, rising into the air after me.

The VERMILLION01 missile launcher on his back shifted, before launching 8 missiles at me.

High speed missiles, hurt quite a bit.

Not too much of a problem for me.

My left arm snapped up, and I fired at the missile launcher, another thin beam of heat and light searing through it and promptly cooking off the missiles within.

The resulting explosion was supremely satisfying, dozens of stacked missiles detonating simultaneously in a burst of heat, light, sound, and smoke.

Killdozer emerged from the smoke damaged, a number of his boosters rendered non-functional, his armour battered and, in some places, broken.

He fell from the sky, missing the Motherwill's deck and crashing towards the ground, slamming into it and kicking up a cloud of sand and dust as he did.

The NEXT wasn't moving, and it was so fucked at this point that it posed no threat to anyone. Champion Champs himself wasn't saying anything, and the near constant growl was gone, only static on his radio, so he was either unconscious or dead.

Stubborn one, him. Continuing to move and engage in combat even after having his NEXT's arm cut off...

Well, that wasn't a common thing among Lynx.

A loud booming noise coupled with a powerful shockwave caught my attention, and I turned around to find that Strayed had just detonated the ordinance of one the Motherwill's main cannons, destroying the entire turret.

Tiny fragments of metal bounced of my NEXT, scratching the paint slightly, but doing no worse.

I spared a brief glance at Iakchos -not moving-, before darting off.

Better make sure that the Normals stay off his back.

100

My gun's heatsink snapped closed, finished venting heat.

Good, good.

"You really do work fast, don't you..." I mused. "Well, you aren't finished yet. Either destroy those Normals, or go after the Motherwill."

Strayed... was jinking like hell at the moment, the random, erratic movements serving both to keep the Normals from gaining a bead on him, and to dodge the missiles that the Motherwill was still launching- though in far less amounts, now.

Partially because any miss from this range was near guaranteed to hit the Motherwill, and partially because Strayed was in range of the Motherwill's other, smaller, less concerning guns.

Not that they were doing any good, thanks to the aforementioned jinking.

Right.

The Normals, then...

The missile launchers on my back shifted, before firing another volley of 12 each.

So glad I brought those- but really, 1200 Normals?

Walking-gun-carrier the Motherwill might have been, but why even bother with such an excessive number?

Well, there weren't that many Normals left now, but still...

Eh... This last volley should finish the rest of them off.

Another booming shockwave came as Strayed detonated the other gun turret, an explosion of smoke and debris. Again, some tiny fragments of metal bounced off my armour, remnants of cannons...

Of course, that detonation and the detonation before it would have done quite some damage to the internals. Even now, my sensors detected a notable rise in heat of the superstructure, growing slowly with each passing second.

Unsurprising, considering both of the Motherwill's main cannons had been destroyed. The Motherwill stocked quite a bit of ammo for those guns, and the resulting explosion and fire it had caused from being detonated had thus been quite severe.

Much more severe than detonating the supply of missiles stored within the various launchers on the Motherwill's decks.

Too severe.

The fires were already raging out of control. The Motherwill had no hope left, right now it was nothing but a matter of time before the core melted down and destroyed the entire Arms Fort.

If the survivors were smart, they'd evacuate before that.

"Main shaft is overheating, temperatures are out of control!"

Yeah, there it is.

The first of my missiles reached their targets, scything down the considerable amount of remaining Normals over the next few seconds, leaving it considerably more defenceless.

Though not totally...

I Quick-boosted to the side, allowing a stream of missiles from the Motherwill to sail harmlessly past me.

Shooting at Strayed would have ended only with the Motherwill itself being hit.

Shooting at me, however...

I spun, taking a split second to line up a shot before firing at one of the Motherwill's missile pods, the laser blast promptly cooking off the missiles that remained within and causing an explosion of heat and smoke.

My left hand came up and I fired at another, detonating that pod too, before I turned slightly and fired my right one again, all the while keeping on the move and dodging both the missiles and the shells that came my way.

"All hands, prepare for ground evacuation!" There we go. "Get out! The Motherwill is going to break apart!"

And like that, mission complete.

My NEXT stood at the base of a building, looking at the recently evacuated Motherwill.

Any minute now.

The wind blew softly, carrying dust and sand over my NEXT, but I didn't really care about that.

I was waiting for the Motherwill's reactor to go critical, the final confirmation of the completion of our mission.

Not strictly necessary, but...

Well, I wanted to see the explosion.

Should be around about... now.

There was a single moment of odd silence before the Motherwill detonated, a massive explosion that created a plume of smoke larger than the Motherwill itself, sending bits and pieces of the Motherwill's superstructure flying into the air.

The desert underneath was swept away with the sheer force of it, leaving a crater underneath the Motherwill, formed of dirt and sand. The buildings that were close promptly collapsed, torn and shredded.

My NEXT's head tilted to the side, and, a few moments later, a piece of the Motherwill's armour flew directly over my shoulder, embedding into the building behind me.

On the side were the words 'Bernard and Felix Foundation'.

Ah... a satisfying end.

"We weren't able to recover much, but..." He stated. "Well, what we did recover is interesting."

A few images appeared on the screen, displaying the Spirit of Motherwill, the NEXTs Strayed, Killdozer, Anima, and the as-of-yet unnamed NEXT piloted by the Lynx of Raven's Nest.

"The assault went as planned." The image of the Spirit of Motherwill changed, now displaying the ruined wreck of the BFF Arms Fort. "Total engagement time, from the moment of deployment to the moment that the Spirit of Motherwill was evacuated, measures 2 minute and 16 seconds."

A fast engagement by anybody's standards, especially for an Arms Fort. Especially for the Spirit of Motherwill as, however oversized, out of date, and sloppily designed it may have been, was still one of the most powerful Arms Forts in existence.

"From what the records indicate," He continued. "The unnamed NEXT was able to defeat both Anima and Killdozer within 10 seconds of engaging them."

"Impossible." Another member of the meeting immediately declared. "No Lynx is so skilled as to take on two more and defeat them in such a short span of time. Not even Otsdarva has achieved anything like that."

"Against the likes of Champion Champs and Iakchos?" Another asked. "I do not find it hard to believe. Otsdarva does not fight such unstable and unskilled foes."

"I would hardly call Iakchos unskilled."

"Compared to the likes of Otsdarva's usual foes?" The other repeated. "He is Collared's number one for a reason."

"Gentlemen, please." A fourth member spoke up, the light and melodious voice indicating her gender. "We are discussing the pilot of Strayed, and the unknown Lynx, not Otsdarva." She paused for a moment. "Admittedly, I too find it unlikely. Champion Champs, unstable as he may be, is not unintelligent, and his NEXT is quite durable. Engaging and disabling it in less than 10 seconds would be a challenge for any, and claiming that they destroyed two?"

"If you don't mind me continuing?" The first interrupted, a note of annoyance in his voice.

"Please, Jeff."


	11. Chapter 11: Logs 101-110

101

Time passed.

It was boring.

So I found ways to occupy myself.

A NEXT darted forwards, Over-booster engaged.

It's target was quite far ahead, and it was sweeping around, its programming deciding that raw, blinding speed was the best defence.

It wasn't.

A Gauss round slammed directly into its 'neck', sheer kinetic force ripping almost the entire torso off.

Bits and pieces rained down on the desert, throwing up plumes of sand as they hit, before throwing up even more as they self-destructed.

I sighed, and stopped the simulation.

I checked the clock again.

8:49 am.

About three hours, now.

The seconds' hand ticked by steadily, counting out each and every single minute.

My perspective, for once, hadn't been sped up as I worked on this NEXT.

I'd be done by now if I had; but that would defeat the point of wasting time.

I was developing its combat protocols, which existed for the sole purpose of guiding a unit when the Commander didn't feel like micromanaging the shit out of it.

Sure, I could multitask like a boss now, but I really didn't like micromanaging groups of units.

Right now, I was trying to get it to automatically dodge ranged fire, and I was using the GIL-E for that purpose.

Namely because the muzzle velocity of the rounds the GIL-E fired was so high that if a NEXT could dodge, no other direct-fire unit was going to hit it.

Well, unless there was an overwhelming volume of fire, or that unit was using lasers.

It would be much easier if I wasn't limiting myself, but that was a given. Eventually, I'd design a NEXT variant with all the advanced technology I had access to, and it would be infinitely better than what I currently had, but not just yet.

I wasn't just working on the combat protocols. I was also checking over the design, looking for flaws and inefficiencies, things I could re-do.

Thankfully, haven't found any of those.

It was about as efficient as I could make it, and if I wanted to make it better at something, something else would have to suffer for it.

If I wanted it to be faster, I'd have to strip some weight, which would have to come from the armour, which would leave the durability lower. If I wanted it to be tougher, I'd have to put more armour on, increasing the weight, thus making it less mobile and agile.

A compromise, making sure both were balanced enough to be efficient.

About the only way I could get more while still staying roughly the same size would be to use Sol Dios technology, which came with the unfortunate problem of being extremely pollutive.

So, no.

Admittedly, going big had a very considerable appeal to it.

My Avatar looked to the side.

On the other side of a glass window, golden letters spelling out 'Prydwen' were etched on glossy black metal.

That, however, was another matter entirely.

My Avatar turned away, and I began working on the NEXT's code again.

A small beeping noise brought my attention away from my design work.

A good beeping noise, because it signified that Collared had sent me something.

Purely for flair, my Avatar gestured towards a screen, where it displayed a message.

TORUS is requesting your services.

Interested?

Oh, why not?

Yes.

Here's the mission.

You are to destroy the large-scale Procyon energy cannons. They are deployed within the Gear Tunnel.

The Procyon is a decommissioned weapon originally manufactured by Omer. Even so, it can still deliver a powerful punch. Don't approach them head-on.

The Gear Tunnel is actually a web of large tunnels. You'll need to use the environment to find safe positions from which to attack and destroy the enemy targets.

That's the mission.

TORUS requested you personally for this mission. Don't let us down.

Gear Tunnel was more than just a web of large tunnels.

Built before the Lynx War, it was a network of railway tunnels that spanned thousands of kilometers, connecting together dozens of colonies.

Note the first part: 'Built before the Lynx War'.

There was a time when the Gear Tunnel served as a means to transports supplies and people between colonies, but that was before the contamination and pollution on the surface had gotten to such a point that living there was impossible.

Now, the tunnels were abandoned, patrolled only sparingly to make sure that nobody was hiding things inside; which was fully possible since they were still perfectly intact, having been built with the intention that they would be used for much longer than they actually were.

Either way, somebody was using them, and TORUS didn't like that.

The reason NEXTs were being called in was to show how much TORUS didn't like that.

A sort of 'Stay the fuck out of the tunnels, or we'll horrifically destroy you'.

Who knows, maybe if there were people other than dumb insurgents, equally idiotic Corporations, and utterly harmless civilians, that warning may have actually been heeded.

As it was, however?

Hah.

My NEXT rushed forwards, Over-boosting through the Gear Tunnel with nary a care in the world.

I rounded a corner, my gun risings and firing before anything could even react.

Three bursts of light tore apart a trio of Normals, obliterating the generators and causing them to detonate.

The missile launchers on my shoulders sprung upwards, and launched one each.

Both split open almost immediately, disgorging two dozen micro-missiles that streaked forwards, before making sharp turns at the sides of the tunnel, entering into passageways to other tunnels.

Complicated guidance systems found targets, and the missiles maneuverer for maximum damage, singular micro-missiles splitting off from the rest of the swarm and slamming into unprepared Normals, MTs, and Procyon cannons. The rest continued onwards, searching for more targets, fed data by both their own systems and my sensors.

A plume of fire and smoke erupted from the passageways as I passed them, flames licking at the back of my NEXT.

The tunnel curved upwards, and I fired again as new targets came into view, another small group of Normals and MTs defending a pair of Procyon cannons.

Another two bursts of light tore apart the Procyon cannon, causing them to detonate and throwing the Normals and MTs forwards from the force.

These ones actually had a chance to raise their guns before I fired again, low-powered, economy shots carefully ripping them apart, detonating fuel cells and making the Normals and MTs explode in fiery pillars.

This was just too easy.

102

"Combat method seems composed of blindingly quick assaults with the two laser rifles." He stated. "The power of these rifles are... considerably high. Data recovered from the Spirit of Motherwill, and obtained from the Gear Tunnel sensor network, suggests these rifles have a variable yield, with the highest observed being on par with high-grade, NEXT-grade laser cannons, and the lowest observed being on par with high-grade, NEXT-grade laser rifles."

"It must be neural-linked. That's the only way they could change the yield in the middle of combat." A woman commented. "Low-yield for cannonfodder. High-yield for dangerous targets."

"So it would seem." A deep voice rang out. The owner of the voice, a decidedly tall, grey-haired man, continued. "However, that implies that somebody managed to condense the power of a laser cannon into a laser rifle, while maintaining the fire rate, and also preventing the heat buildup from melting the rifle. Any one would be believable. All three?"

"There's also the matter of the missiles." The woman spoke up again. "High power, high speed, high accuracy, long range, combined with large numbers. An extremely effective weapon by anyone's standards."

"Too effective." The grey-haired man stated. "For a group that came out of nowhere."

It was the cold, hard truth.

Raven's Nest, ever mysterious with the utter lack of information available on it, had demonstrated cutting-edge technology, and that was catching interest.

Because cutting-edge technology meant significant resources, and significant resources meant economic backing-

Only, as far as they could tell, nobody was backing Raven's Nest.

Everybody was reeling from Raven's Nest's sudden appearance on the stage. Not even a single person had any idea what was up, and naturally, that was incredibly suspicious.

It was impossible that they had all missed a group like this. Advanced technology meant advanced equipment, which meant scientists, which meant housing, which meant food, which meant resources, which meant money.

Money that had no source, resources that came from nowhere, food that would have required more infrastructure, housing that didn't seem to exist, and people who couldn't be tracked and found.

Impossible. It might have been capable of being done on a smaller scale, but Raven's Nest wasn't small scale.

"And now we loop back to the beginning question." The grey-haired man began. "Where did Raven's Nest come from, and what do they want?"

God fucking damn waiting for these people to do something was boring as shit.

I sighed, leaning back into my chair.

Little1 looked up for a moment, his head tilting to the side, before his Avatar settled down into my embrace as I resumed running my fingers through his hair.

The code for my NEXT was done, and though it had wasted a significant amount of time, I was still sitting here, bored as fuck.

I'm a Commander. I'm meant to be doing things, not wasting entire weeks waiting for other people to hurry up with their stupid shit. Bleh...

If I have to keep this up much longer, I was just going to leave and go head to another dimension where more interesting things are happening. Maybe not completely isolate myself from regular contact, either; because there was extremely little to do when the extent of your conversation with other people was talking to the Operators and Lynx of other NEXTs while disguised as your own Operator.

That got old quickly enough, though. The only other thing that left me to do was monitor everything I found interesting.

On the plus side, Strayed was doing well for himself. He'd recently fucked up GA's Great Wall Arms Fort, and before that, had taken a job from Line Ark to defend the Megalis power recycling plant.

The latter was fairly interesting, actually. In the game, that mission only showed up after the first playthrough, and it was one of the starting missions of the ORCA Path. It wouldn't quite put the player on the path, that was a later mission, but doing it showed that Strayed supported Line Ark.

That... had interesting consequences.

Line Ark... It was a group that opposed the League of Ruling Companies, and the Cradle System. It was the largest non-company power that existed on the surface of the planet- but that kind of power came at a cost.

Though Line Ark had originally been founded to advocate freedom, democracy, and the ability to escape from the iron fist of the League, their motto of accepting all who came to them backfired as they attracted large numbers of more... unfavourable types. Criminals, insurgents, terrorists, thieves... with all of the above and them some funnelling into Line Ark, their government and society had ended up decaying slowly, and there were little of their original ideas left.

Further, though they were a powerful group, they lacked in both Arms Forts and NEXTs. Their forces consisted mainly of Muscle Tracers and Normals, though they had exactly one NEXT among them.

White Glint.

The name referred to a total of two NEXTs. The first one had been destroyed quite some years ago, and had been piloted by Joshua O'Brien. The second was still active, still fighting the good fight. Its Lynx was old, and experienced.

Fitting, because the Lynx was Anatolia's Mercenary- otherwise known as the player character of Armored Core 4.

If canon was preserved, then Strayed would be facing two choices. First, accept a mission from the League, and fight alongside Otsdarva to kill White Glint, thus ending the threat Line Ark posed to the League.

Second, accept a mission from Line Ark, and fight alongside White Glint against Otsdarva and CUBE, thus defending Line Ark from the League.

Canon would have White Glint killed, and Line Ark collapsing as his loss left them open to the League, regardless of which mission was chosen.

This, however, was not canon. For starters, this wasn't a game. There would be no scripted events that would prevent me from saving Anatolia's Mercenary, and there was no limit on what I could do.

More importantly, Line Ark, though it was pretty corrupt, would still take much less effort to fix and then install as a government than it would take to turn the League into something that wasn't dystopic as fuck.

I hummed.

"Say, Little1," I grinned as he looked up, curious. "How do you feel about this..."

103

"There we go..." I drummed my fingers against the table. Tap tap tap tap, pause. Tap tap tap tap, pause.

In front of me, a small octahedron floated around, navigating around obstacles.

I say 'small', but it was fairly large. About a meter long, a fourth of that at the widest point, with the bottom pyramid of the octahedron three times longer than the top. Three small thrusters were attached to each face, all of them mounted on pivots so they could independently alter their direction of thrust. Not completely, but enough so that the thing would be extremely nimble.

Which was good, since those boosters were not very powerful, and the subsequent lack of armour on it in order to reduce the weight meant that it was quite fragile. Its defense would come from being able to dodge, rather than being able to tank hits.

Could it actually dodge worth a damn?

Above me, a panel on the ceiling opened up, and a turret slid out. It spun around, aiming at my little invention. It charged energy for a moment-

The boosters went from practically nothing to full burn in less than a second, flinging the bipyramid across the room. It flipped so that its bottom pyramid faced the turret, even as other boosters activated and slowed it, steadying it.

A lance of light struck past where it had been, scorching through the floor. Already, it was charging up its own weapon, a very small laser, aiming at the turret. The turret was correcting its aim, but despite the slow charge on the bipyramid, it still finished first.

A smaller, less powerful burst of light tore open the turret, burning off the servos that enabled it to move. A few seconds later, another shot disconnected it from the ceiling entirely, and the turret fell to the ground with a thump.

I smiled as a Protocrafter reclaimed the wreckage. It was always nice to see the stuff you make working properly.

One Orbit Weapon project completed. Those will be useful for my NEXT, just that little bit of extra firepower, in a form that doesn't really compromise the abilities of my NEXT.

Really had to find a name for that thing. Calling it 'my NEXT' all the time was a bit unwieldy. Though... considering I had already named the Prydwen, I had a ready to go naming theme. Excalibur, or some other name from some variation of Arthurian legend... Caliburn, Caledfwlch, Calesvol...

Actually- that was a trio of 'C's there. Three different variations on the same base design?

Hmm.

"They really do want to get rid of us." She spoke. She tapped a few keys, and there was a soft beeping noise as the computer processed the input. "Otsdarva and CUBE. Some of the finest of Collared."

Her companion didn't speak. She wasn't surprised. Ever silent, Anatolia's Mercenary, the Hero of the Lynx War, simply listened.

"I don't need to mention the stakes." And she didn't. They were both fully aware of what would happen to Line Ark should he fall in this battle. "One against two. You've handled worse." Once, he had. A single battle, the closest ever. One against four. His NEXT had been in ruins, his ammo depleted, most of his armour missing and destroyed, the AMS feedback causing periodic spikes of pain.

But in the end, he was the one who returned. Not the four enemy NEXT.

Another ping caught her attention, and her eyes darted to the bottom left of the screen. She smiled.

"You're going to have backup." She said. "Strayed. Up and coming, much like you once were." Over a decade ago, before the Cradles, before Anatolia's destruction. "It's nice to see some people are still fighting the good fight."

With the world as it was these days... So very few fought for justice. Fewer still lived long enough to matter.

She tapped a few more keys. The click-clack echoed through the room, silently counting her progress. A message composed, then sent. The dull light of the computer's screens was all that illuminated her. Her skin was pale- too many days inside this room, too many days away from the sun.

In terms of prices paid, it was pitiful. Others had sacrificed life and wellbeing fighting for Line Ark. Her companion risked his in every battle, but she... she was his Operator. She was at base, just another life that he was defending.

She breathed in, then out. "It was always going to come to this. The League was never going to tolerate Line Ark's existence forever. They're too greedy for that. Too much power in hands that aren't theirs." She leaned back in her chair, sighing. "Tenacious, aren't they?"

There was no answer, of course.

There was a double beep, and she looked to the right. A list of data scrolled down, and her eyes followed the text as it flew by. "All systems normal, green and ready to go. The fuel is at full, the AMS has been calibrated, you have a full supply of ammo, and your FRS has been updated again. You're at one hundred percent."

She looked back at the center screen. "Telemetry data is being fed to White Glint now. We have eight hours before Otsdarva and CUBE get here." She sighed. "Get some rest." She told him "You'll need it."

Fighting against two of the most dangerous Lynx in existence... If he gave anything less than his absolute best, he would die. No doubt about that.

The lights on White Glint shortly blinked out, and the NEXT itself slumped slightly.

"One of these days, I'll get you to sleep in a real bed." She spoke aloud. "Not inside your mech." She sighed. "Sleep well, everything is going to go to hell in the afternoon." She flicked a switch, closing the connection.

She, on the other hand, would not be going to sleep. There were things to do, people to talk to, defences to manage, civilians to herd into shelters...

An Operator's work was never done. She sighed, pulling off her headset, and then massage her temples gently. Putting them back on, she flicked another switch. "Michael, some coffee. Today is going to be a long day."

104

It was time.

Finally.

"Are you ready, Little1?" I asked. Unnecessary, yes, because I knew he'd just been waiting the last couple of days, like I had been.

He nodded.

I grinned, and ruffled his hair.

'Bout time we got to make a step on the stage. So many plans in motion- which we were about to ruin.

This ought to be fun.

"I hope you're ready." She spoke. "This is the moment of truth."

The battlefield was empty. No Normals, no MTs. On this level, the only thing deploying regular forces would accomplish is heighten the casualties.

It was a clear, sunny day. The ocean was calm, gentle waves washing against the outer structure of Line Ark. Clouds, few and far between, decorated the sky. It was a day far too cheerful for what was at stake.

On one side of Line Ark's structure were two NEXTs. One, coloured white, the other, black.

White Glint and Strayed.

On the other side of Line Ark's structure; two more NEXTs. One, a navy blue, standing on the scaffolding, and the other, a dark purple hovering lightly in the air.

Otsdarva and CUBE.

"All those slimy politicians, with their empty calls to arms. 'In the name of liberty'." The voice of one of the most skilled Lynx in the world rang out over the radio. "I'll sink the whole lot of you to the bottom of the ocean. You ready, Fragile?"

"Preparations complete." CUBE spoke. His voice was lighter than she had expected, young and with a hint of eagerness. She might have underestimated him, if it were not for the fact that she had extensively studied their histories.

They were good. Otsdarva was rank 1, and his skill was thus obvious, but the only reason CUBE hadn't moved up in Collared was because he hadn't bothered to try.

"Good to hear. Move out."

"From now on, it's all up to you." She said.

Fiona Jarnefeldt leaned back in her seat.

Strayed rushed forwards the moment combat began, Over-booster activating and sending the NEXT flying through the air. He himself moved off to the side, White Glint leaping into the air around Line Ark.

Otsdarva- Stasis did the same, mirroring his action. Strayed and CUBE continued the course, moving towards each other.

It would be unlikely that he'd have Strayed's help against Otsdarva- but it would be equally unlikely that Otsdarva would have CUBE's help again him.

A one on one fight.

He'd had worse odds.

"White Glint... All those silly legends, they end today!"

He- White Glint moved. Quick-boosters activated and flung the NEXT to the side as a laser bolt rushed past, impeccably accurate shots dodged.

It would be a pain to be hit by those, he knew. Lasers and Primal Armour was not a good mix for the one on the receiving end.

His- White Glint's arms raised, and he opened fire on Otsdarva, sending a hail of punishing shells down upon the navy blue NEXT. Following his own example, Otsdarva Quick-boosted out of the way, his NEXT showing its famed manoeuvrability. Some of the shells hit, but none did anything more than sap away at the Primal Armour.

That was okay.

He kept moving, spinning in mid-air as he traced Otsdarva's path, who continued to weave through the bullets. Constant side to side Quick-boosting prevented him from getting a solid bead, though he still sapped away at the Primal Armour.

A moment later, Otsdarva ducked behind one Line Ark's support pillars. He stopped firing- while his guns could tear through it, it was nothing more than a waste of ammo.

Purple dots appeared on his radar, and he disengaged the boosters on his NEXT. Missiles arched out of Otsdarva's cover, and then curved downwards towards him. He waited a precious second before re-engaging this thruster, Quick-boosting at the same time. His NEXT leapt forwards, and the missiles tried to follow- but couldn't quite succeed. They went over his head and behind his back, and crashed into the water below as they tried to arc back up.

He went upwards again, rising higher into the air. Otsdarva, according to the radar, was already gone, having taken the opportunity the missiles had provided him. White Glint's wings extended, thrusters engaging, and he shot forwards as Over-boosters engaged.

Strayed... was currently pressing CUBE. The two were a blur of black and purple, punctuated with the white-green flashes of light that was Primal Armour being impacted by bullets. He was actually somewhat impressed that CUBE's NEXT could handle the manoeuvres it was pulling, as its name, Fragile, was certainly an apt descriptor.

He moved outwards, heading to the old buildings surrounding Line Ark. Otsdarva followed, Stasis rushing out from cover, Over-booster engaged. It hung low to the water, and sent up a trail of steam where it passed, and he took the opportunity fire a few rounds on a fairly large spread.

Otsdarva rushed from side to side to avoid the worse of the fire, but it couldn't dodge them all. The Primal Armour, weakened from the Over-boost, couldn't quite stop the bullets, and the armour dented and broke as half-corroded rounds slammed into it.

Then Otsdarva vanished behind a building, momentarily safe. He disengaged the Over-booster, and dropped to the top of a building. He had to move as Otsdarva appeared again, firing at him with the assault rifle, deadly bullets made all the more dangerous from his own weakened Primal Armour.

Another white flash heralded another dodged bolt of light, and he spun around to return-

"Confirmed, CUBE has been defeated."

There was, for the briefest of moments, a lull in their battle.

Already?

CUBE was no joke; was Strayed really so skilled that he had ended his battle before himself and Otsdarva had even entered the second phase of theirs?

Another wave of bullets slamming into his NEXT had him put the thought out of mind. His Primal Armour, already strained, broke completely as too much of the Kojima Particles were worn away. Otsdarva rushed forwards, his rifle still spewing bullets, which impacted with his NEXT.

He Quick-boosted to the side, escaping the torrent, and then returned the favour. Dual rifles quickly wore away at the last of Otsdarva's Primal Armour, and it broke with a slight discharge of lightning.

Otsdarva didn't break off. It was a move he hadn't expected- a reckless charge. Most Lynx would have left to recharge their Primal Armour, but Otsdarva shot forwards, closing the last bit of distance between them.

He Quick-boosted to the side, pre-emptively dodging the laser blast. Otsdarva kept going, boosters engaging- and presenting a wonderful target.

He opened fire again, but this time, Otsdarva had no Primal Armour to blunt the impact of the bullets. They slammed into his NEXT's back, tearing metal and armour away.

His guns clicked empty as Otsdarva's boosters disengaged, the NEXT falling down. He hurried to reload, ejecting magazines and replacing them with new ones-

"Main booster malfunction?! Is that what you were aiming for? " Otsdarva's voice sounded panicked.

He moved forwards, taking aim at Otsdarva- and watched as the NEXT, flailing, hit the water and began sinking.

"Boosters won't engage! Hull breach? Damn it, I'm taking on water! No!" Strayed, his NEXT missing a fair portion of its armour, landed next to him, both weapons pointed towards Otsdarva. "I can't go down here! Not now!"

The two of them looked on as Otsdarva sank further and further down.

"Damn it. This wasn't supposed to be how it ended." The transmission cut out. A few seconds later, so did Otsdarva's radar signature.

"Confirmed. Otsdarva defeated." Fiona spoke, eventually. There was a slight note of incredulity in her voice.

"Unbelievable. Just like that..." Serene Haze trailed off. "Mission complete. Strayed... you're more than I dared hope for."

105

All things considered, everything went better than intended.

A little bit of industrial sabotage for CUBE, a very minor psionic signal to interfere with Otsdarva, and not only does Strayed ruthlessly capitalize on CUBE's fuckups by putting a Laser Blade through his chest, but Otsdarva doesn't quite do as well as he would.

End result? CUBE dead, Otsdarva running, Strayed in good condition, and Anatolia's Mercenary still alive.

Which, in knock-on effects, would mean that Line Ark would continue to exist for the time being, which in turn means it would take up more of the League's attention, which meant Raven's Nest would still be fairly free for the mean time. Not that the last bit mattered too much.

Now I just had to make sure White Glint didn't suffer any unfortunate accidents while the rest of the plan comes to fruition.

Shouldn't be too hard.

But aside from that, there was a few more things I had to do. I had to get involved in ORCA, for example.

ORCA... a comparatively small faction, all things considered. It had been formed by a number of Lynx in the aftermath of the Lynx War, and had recruited a surprisingly large number of other personnel, enough to take over and maintain Big Box, once GA America's headquarters.

It was the kind of numbers that Lynx couldn't get alone. ORCA had secretly gained the support of a few companies on the League, which had semi-secretly supplied resources to the group. Why?

Well, ORCA had a goal. A fairly simple goal, all things considered. They wanted to destroy the Assault Cells that hung over Humanity's head, removing the threat of extinction, and opening the path to space- a goal most companies could get behind, but which they weren't particularly capable of pursuing without causing a lot of problems with the other companies.

Not that the majority of ORCA knew that, of course. Even among the highest levels, that particular bit of information was kept well supressed.

The leader of ORCA knew, of course. But aside from him?

Well. Very few indeed.

Why was this important?

Well, Line Ark was my best bet for destroying the League and replacing them with an actual government, but ORCA was my best bet for destroying the Assault Cells and averting Humanity's destruction.

A resource base, and the corporations themselves not too eager to stop it.

There was just one, teensy little thing I had to do.

I had to recruit ORCA's leader.

A man who goes by two names. One, Maximilian Thermidor.

And the second?

"Good evening, Otsdarva."

He froze.

His NEXT, hidden safely in the ocean, stilled.

"Faking your own death. I must admit, that was inspired."

"Who are you?!" He demanded.

"Oh, I've been called a lot of names, by a lot of people." The voice chuckled. "Not all of them good."

The boosters on Stasis activated, carrying the NEXT above the water.

He was far enough away from civilization now.

"Anyway, I did a little bit of digging. Some exploring, a few mild searches..." There was an extremely amused tone in the voice. "And, I found some interesting things. Like you, Maximilian Thermidor."

His blood ran cold.

Stasis spun around, scanning the environment- but there was nothing but water in every direction.

He looked up, searching the skies.

"Leader of ORCA. An opponent of the Cradle System. A defier of fate, one who wishes to topple the system." A considering hum followed the statement.

Nothing in the skies. His radar wasn't finding anything.

"I found out about the Closed Plan." A pause. "And I can agree with most of it."

Stasis didn't still.

"Who are you?" He asked again, slower, cautious.

"You, Maxi, may call me Drich." A hmph followed. "By the way... look behind you."

His radar pinged.

Close.

Far, far, far to close.

Quick-boosters activated in an instant, flinging Stasis to the side.

He was already turning, the AR-O700 Assault Rifle ready to fire-

To see nothing.

"The problem isn't just the Assault Cells, Otsdarva, though they are the sword of Damocles hanging over Humanity's neck." The voice continued.

He spun around again, wary and watching his environment.

"The problem is the corporations. Such an arrogant and greedy lot, aren't they? And yet, powerful." There was a sigh. "Powerful enough to destroy the Assault Cells, certainly- if they would stop squabbling with each other, anyway."

His radar pinged again- and again, there was nothing.

"The corporations are the reason that Humanity is in such a mess." Another sigh. "But of course, they are too cowardly to pull Humanity out of it. They fear reprisal from each other, loss of profits... Though if the fools could rub two neurons together, they might realise that the loss of Humanity would kill that more surely than the other companies ever could."

The hand of a NEXT touched Stasis' shoulder. For a few seconds, he just floated there, stunned- something had gotten that close without him even noticing?

Then, he moved, boosting forwards and ducking out of the other NEXT's grasp, spinning around and brandishing both weapons- and he paused, again, as he took in the sight of the NEXT.

It was mostly dark blue, though parts of it were black. Trailing lines of gold ran down it, accentuating the black and blue. The colour were all wrong for it to have hidden in the sky, but the complete lack of water on its form showed that it hadn't been hiding undersea like he had been.

"You know that some corporations are supporting you, of course. If you're any bit as intelligent as you should be, then you've long since realised that even if you did complete the Closed Plan, all you're doing is giving them an opportunity- and scapegoat. You'll open up the path to space, to the final frontier, and in doing so, you'll damn the Cradles to fall to the polluted earth."

The other NEXT hung there, waves lapping at its feet.

"Open up the path to space, give them this opportunity to pin the blame- and you know as well as I do that the corporations will do something utterly moronic with it. It's in their nature, after all."

He couldn't help but notice that the other NEXT lacked any weapon other than a pair of laser blades. At this distance, they could be a worry, but with the words that had already been spoken...

"They need to go. Humanity needs to get out from under the fists of ruling tyrants." The other NEXT turned slightly. "And ORCA is one of the better bets for that."

He slowly lowered his guns. "You wish to join us."

"Summed up, yes." The other NEXT turned back to him. "So, what about it Maxi? Want a little bit more support?"

106

"I don't expect you to make the decision right now." I continued after a few moments of silence. "I came out of nowhere, after all, and that's rather suspicious."

An understatement if there ever was one.

"But trust me, after you see what I have? You'll say yes." Here we go. The second step of the plan. I sent a data-transfer request to his NEXT- which he accepted after a few seconds. A four hundred terabyte fold was quickly sent across, allocated into a secondary hard drive on his NEXT. "When you get the time, peruse those files. I imagine that you'll find it... enlightening."

"Who are you?"

"I already told you my name, Maxi." I laughed. "Of course, that isn't what you're asking." My NEXT turned to face him, spreading its arms to the side. "I will be seeing you soon."

My NEXT rose further into the sky as Brotherhood of Nod based optical camouflage activated, my NEXT fading out of sight shortly. Nothing but a very slight distortion in the air marked its passage, and I immediately sent it further up and away.

Maximilian would be having a lot of fun with those files, no doubt. As he should- I had plundered everything on it straight from the servers of the various corporations.

Technology hadn't been the only thing I'd borrowed. It comprised the vast majority of what I had been interested in, sure, but it hadn't been the only thing.

The corporations kept records -obviously-, and those records had detailed... quite a number of things. History, allocation of resources, stuff like that. What I had been interested in, however, was the records that had been hidden under lock and key.

All the corporations had them. Omer Science had a special server on a special facility that wasn't connected to any networks- completely isolated and very well hidden. Global Armaments had done much the same- save the fact that the servers hadn't been hidden, but placed in the deepest, most fortified parts of their HQ. Interior Union had actually had a server connected to the network, though it had been heavily encrypted. The other corporations had other things, but all of them had kept extremely sensitive data hidden away.

The corporations were of the mind to not delete anything permanently. A show could be made that they were deleting data, but some things were never gotten rid of.

Useful for me, that.

And because I'd found and plundered those servers, I now had access to everything that the corporations would have rathered buried.

There wasn't too much on it, just a list of about half the atrocities every individual corporation had committed, the back room deals that led to other people suffering, the constant abuses of power that were covered up, the exploitation of people and resources that passed unnoticed because the only ones in the position to notice were a part of the corporations.

Those files were an executioner's blade, one aimed right at the neck of the corporations.

If they ever became aware that Otsdarva or myself possessed them?

Well.

Heads would roll.

"I've reviewed the data you sent to me."

I smiled. "And?"

"It was... enlightening." Maxi's voice betrayed his disgust for a moment.

"I had much the same reaction when I came upon it, Maxi." I shook my head, leaning back in my chair. "Horrific, isn't it? But then again, what do you expect? The corporations have power almost completely unchecked. Power corrupts, and absolute power-"

"Corrupts absolutely." Maximilian finished. "I am aware of that saying."

"A connoisseur of old culture, are you?" I hummed. "I wouldn't expect many people to know it these days."

"I have spent some time browsing old records." Maximilian admitted. "Though I must ask, the information you attained-"

"I am everywhere, Maxi." I pre-empted him, knowing that he was going to ask how I acquired it. "The corporations might like to think that they can hide things from sight, to erase what otherwise might be history, but that is false. Nothing they do escapes my notice."

"Nothing?" He sounded curious. "I would call you arrogant, but this information speaks for itself."

"It does indeed." I hummed. "But go ahead, ask your question. I can sense that you want an example."

"A person, actually." Oh? "A woman, specifically." Oh ho? "She goes by the name Katherine Cyvale." Don't recognize the name of the top of my head. Wasn't a character that I knew of in Armored Core. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you perhaps find her?"

Katherine Cyvale. Who are you, and why would Maximilian Thermidor be interested in you?

I checked through my stolen records. "There are a total of four different individuals called 'Katherine Cyvale' that I know of. One lives within Cradle 03, another within Cradle 08, and the third in Cradle 10. The fourth individual, who also lived in Cradle 10, recently perished in an industrial accident."

"One of them should have a sister?" Maximilian's voice sounded hopeful. Curious and curiouser.

"The fourth individual, yes. Alice Cyvale, daughter of Michael and Beatrice Cyvale. Recently attended her sister's funeral."

There was silence on Maximilian's end.

An interesting reaction, to be sure.

"Ah. I see." Maximilian's voice was quite notably devoid of hope now. "That is... unfortunate. Thank you."

I... decided not to ask. As curious as I was, there was evidently a bit of history there. Hurtful history, by his tone.

A few seconds later, he spoke again, sounding slightly distracted. "You were right, before. The data you gave me convinced me to say yes."

"I told you it would." I stated.

"You did. You have my answer; welcome to ORCA."

I grinned.

Step two, completed.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Maxi." I closed the channel.

Well, that's that.

Now I just had a few more things to do before I can finally get to overthrowing the League.

"So, Little1." I reached to the side, plucking him off the ground. "You ready to have a bit of fun~?"

107

"Oh god."

"I wouldn't have pegged you as a religious man, Malzel."

"I'm not." A pause. "And you know that perfectly well, Thermidor."

"I do." The revolutionary responded. "Malzel... I'd like to hear your thoughts."

"On this?" His friend responded.

"What else?" He asked. "What we've been given there... It's a dangerous thing, Malzel. And an opportunity."

For a few moments, Malzel said nothing. "You're planning something, aren't you?"

"Of course." Thermidor looked up for a moment. "We've been handed an executioner's blade."

"A blade pointed at the corporations, yes. But in case you've forgotten, the corporations are powerful- and we cannot stand against their combined might. If we release it-"

"Of that, I am aware. We could not stand against the corporations, as monolithic entities- but they are not monolithic, Malzel. Their power comes from their people, and their ability to manipulate those people. This data, should we release it, would fracture them. How would they stand against us when their own armies abandon them after seeing their dark side?"

"Armies that need food, and maintenance- and who hold connections to the civilians in the cradle, need I remind you?"

"Food provided by farms, maintenance given by technicians. People form the core. Some would stay, out of fear, or being corrupt themselves- but the rest?"

"You want to topple the corporations." There was a resignation in his voice.

"After seeing this data... wouldn't you?"

Yes...

Yes..!

Yes!

That's a good line of thought, Maxi!

"Of course I do! It's... disgusting."

I grinned.

"But think of the consequences, would you." Malzel got his party pooper on. "Evidently corrupt as they may be, the corporations are still a stable government. If they go, the only ones left are Line Ark, Lilliana, and a few other small groups. Somebody would have to take over in order to ensure things don't go even further into shit. Opening a path into the future means nothing if there's nobody left to walk it."

"Which is better, Malzel? A future decided by corrupt overlords, a future decided by one's own will?"

How very Line Ark of you, Maxi.

Malzel sighed. "I didn't say... I wasn't going to support you."

Excellent~

"Still, what of the Closed Plan?"

"That... is a good question. Prior to this, I would have said that we push through with it, but now... Humanity should inherit the stars, but if it's the corporations at our forefront... We might very well lose what makes us Human."

"Perhaps... Regardless, ORCA was founded to complete the Closed Plan. Some of our organisation may-"

"I'm aware, Malzel." Maximilian spoke again. "Do not worry about it."

"That's not in my nature." Malzel sighed again. "Regardless, I'm needed elsewhere. We'll talk later, Thermidor."

"Later, old friend."

A minute or so passed in silence. I was just about to divert my attention to other matters, when Maxi spoke up again.

"Might I assume you were listening in on that conversation, Drich?"

Ah hah~ He knows.

"You may." I transmitted my voice through the speak systems. "You would even be correct on that matter."

"So, you even watch ORCA." He hummed.

"As Big Box was once the main headquarters of Global Armaments, it was among the first installations I began monitoring. Such monitoring did not end with ORCA's occupation of it." Technically correct. Big Box had been the third place I'd subverted, I was just misleading on when I had subverted it.

"Then I would ask a question of you."

"Shoot." What's this about?

"You work for Raven's Nest, don't you?"

Ah. "Astute, but strictly speaking, incorrect. I head Raven's Nest."

There was a pause. "That, I did not expect." He gave a hmm. "Though it does make sense. Raven's Nest... No- You. What is your goal, here?"

"My goal is simple. I wish to see the corporations destroyed, and the damage this planet has taken undone. I created Raven's Nest to facilitate that, building a science and industrial base for that goal."

"Heal the planet?" He asked.

"The technology to manipulate Kojima Particles already exists." I said by way of answer. "Primal Armour, Kojima Blades, Kojima Beams... All of these rely on the ability to manipulate Kojima Particles. As you are no doubt aware, however, Kojima Particles are highly corrosive and extremely deleterious to life in general."

"Kojima 101."

"Indeed. Still, Kojima technology offers a considerable benefit, should it be harness safely. Its use in warfare was not 'safe' by any definition of the word." I sighed. "And as a result, the planet's ecosystems took a considerable impact. The ground is poison, now."

"And what does this have to do with healing?"

"As I said, the technology to manipulate Kojima Particles already exists. We just took the concept, and advanced it to the logical end. Wide-scale manipulation of Kojima Particles, that is." I hummed. "We designed what we called a Kojima Trap. A roughly fifty meter tall spike, capable of generating wide-ranged magnetic fields, and thus capable of drawing in Kojima Particles from dozens of kilometres away. They'd be drawn through the air, and sucked inside the spike, held in containment by extremely powerful magnetic fields-"

"Where the Kojima Particles could react to each other, and decay in photons." Ah hah, he is smart. "Effectively cleaning the local area of Kojima Particles."

"Indeed. It would take a significant amount of time -moreso when Kojima Particles are still being released thanks to the constant conflict between the Corporations-, but it would eventually restore the surface of the planet to a life-bearing state, from which nature could eventually recover." I chuckled. "We even included photovoltaic cells to harvest energy from the effect."

"Clever." But... "But what does this have to do with the Corporations?"

"Aside from the continued detrimental effect they're having on the planet thanks to continuous warfare- we possess advanced technology. The Corporations are both greedy, and incredibly short sighted, as is plainly evidenced by the fact that the Assault Cells exist at all. You're familiar with the method of operation by which Kojima generators work, yes?"

"Extremely high temperature Helium undergoing induced decay into Hydrogen and Kojima Particles?"

"Indeed. The efficiencies of such a process vary- but we've created a NEXT scale generator that pushes fourty four percent." I let that sink in for a moment. "Raven's Nest was never founded with the idea that we would go to out and out war with the Corporations. If they became aware of what we possessed, they would absolutely attack us in order to both get their hands on our technology, and prevent the other Corporations from having it. The resultant conflict would be... rather devastating, you see."

"That makes sense." Of course it does. Sure, I'm being misleading as fuck, but seriously. "Then, the reason you are assisting ORCA-"

"ORCA, as well as Line Ark, have resources that I do not." Mislead, mislead, mislead. "You are among my better bets for toppling the Corporations, installing a new non-terrible government, cleaning up the planet, and then eventually ripping the Assault Cells from the sky." I sighed.

I waited a few moments, and then spoke again.

"So, now that you know, what will you do, Maximilian Thermidor?"

108

"Nothing."

Hmm?

"You've made your intentions clear enough. I have no problem with them."

Hmm.

"Besides... I have a feeling You'll prove to be a great ally."

"Oh, you have no idea, Maxi." I chuckled. "Anyway, we'll talk later. Come get me when you need my help."

Nothing but time, now.

The second chapter had closed, and now we moved on to the third. One step before end game, the phase before everything came to a head.

Line Ark was still up and running. ORCA's goals had shifted, to a minor extent. The League was on the back foot from losing Otsdarva and CUBE.

Oh, I can hardly wait~

There were precious few events I cared about in this stage. Omer was planning another strike on Line Ark, but that wouldn't come before ORCA launched the attack on the Arteria facility, Ulna. That would quite handily catch their attention, and pull it away from Line Ark, giving the group a bit of breathing room.

There were three main Arteria facilities, Arteria Ulna, Arteria Carpals, and Arteria Cranium. Each facility contained a large amount of Kojima Generators, as well as a number of energy transmitters that sent the power they generated to the Cradles.

It was, strictly speaking, unnecessary to have all three. Each one generated enough power to run the Cradles, all of them, individually.

In most cases, I would have applauded their dedication to having backups- if not for the fact that having backups had never been the intention of those who built them, as well as the minor fact that all those Kojima Generators had the slight problem of producing stupid amounts of Kojima Particles.

Which was released into the environment, and was among the largest producers of Kojima contamination on the entire planet.

Ergo, they had to go.

I'd have likely disabled them already, if not for the minor fact that without the Arteria facilities, the Cradles would lose power and be forced to make a crash landing.

More than half of Humanity lived on the Cradles. Collective billions of people.

And if Arteria stopped supplying the Cradles with power... They would be forced to glide to the surface, thus exposing the passengers to the polluted air and ground.

Billions of people who weren't adapted to the surface, who didn't have the protective gear everybody else down here did, and who consisted mostly of civilians simply trying to live their lives.

A lot of people would die if the Cradles stopped receiving power from Arteria. As the Closed Plan called for exactly that... well, in the canon ORCA Path, a lot of innocent people would die.

But I'd mentioned what would happen to canon before, hadn't I?

I wasn't going to let all those people die. It was far and away in my capabilities to stop it- all I needed was a bunch of energy transmitters, and enough energy to support the Cradles.

Both were easy enough for me to get.

All I had to do was pick an appropriate place, then start building.

I digress- Aside from the planned attack on Arteria Ulna, the only other event that I'd care about was the attack on Arteria Carpals, which, if the two attacks were successful, and I'd ensure they would be, would ultimately leave only Arteria Cranium.

Those two attacks were the third chapter. Or, at least, all I cared about.

After the third chapter was the fourth, of course.

Fourth, and very much the final.

There were exactly three things that needed to be done in order to ensure ORCA's win. First; preventing the Anti-Satellite Cannons from being destroyed. Second; destroying the Arms Forts Answerer. Third; taking and holding Arteria Cranium.

Each was a critical thing. Without the Anti-Satellite Cannons, ORCA would have no way of destroying the Assault Cells, effectively rendering the main goal of the organisation impossible. Arteria Cranium was another key piece in that goal- because it was the control center of the Arteria facilities, from which the energy Arteria generated could be controlled, redirected from the Cradles into the Anti-Satellite Cannons.

But the second...

The Arms Fort Answerer presented a massive threat to ORCA's operations, too. While theoretically ignorable, the Answerer came with another problem.

The Answerer was a floating Arms Fort, constructed on a simply massive scale. Bristling with high tech lasers, and some of the most advanced Kojima cannons in existence, the Answerer was a weapons platform of considerable power. Though it was rather lightly armoured, the Answerer had a little ability that made it very hard to actually take down.

Namely, it was protected by Primal Armour.

It was an Arms Fort. An utterly massive Arms Fort, well over a kilometre tall, and it was protected by Primal Armour.

The Answerer was equipped with the single largest Kojima Generator in existence. The amount of Kojima Particles that the Answerer outputted in order to create and maintain its Primal Armour bordered on excessive.

Actually, no. It far and away exceeded excessive.

Going at full capacity, the Answerer would output more Kojima Particles in five minutes than all Arteria facilities would output over the course of a week.

Combined.

It would output high-density Kojima Particles in such massive amounts that it could strip away the Primal Armour of NEXT from tens of kilometres away.

In open air.

The use of the Answerer was, without a doubt, an environment death sentence. The sheer threat that it could pose to the ecosystem of the planet was... Well, far in excess of any and all other Kojima devices, put together.

I was already unwilling to tolerate the existence of the other Arteria facilities, but the Answerer?

No.

There was absolutely no way that I was going to let that thing continue to exist.

The moment Omer and Interior Union even thought about deploying that thing, I was going to take the Prydwen, and blow the Answerer straight to hell.

There was, quite simply, no other option. The Answerer had to go.

But... That wouldn't be for some time yet.

First, Arteria, and the Anti-Satellite cannons.

109

"I'm afraid we won't need you just yet." Maximilian stated. "Another Lynx has joined our mission."

"Strayed, yes."

It seemed he really was going along the ORCA path. Good news- though it wasn't quite a sure thing just yet.

"He's a skilled Lynx. He'll be able to destroy the energy transmitters of Arteria Ulna."

"Indeed. He'll be the latest member of ORCA, should he complete it." Maximilian gave a considering hmm. "Though I speak to you for a different reason. You have the capacity to infiltrate systems, but how far does that extend?"

"Quite far." I responded. "But you will have to be a bit more specific if you want specific answers."

"Is it within your power to broadcast data- and make certain that it is seen? Not blocked, not cut out by the Corporations?"

"It is..." I let the words hang for a moment. "And I believe I know where you're going with this."

"The data you gathered on the Corporations, is it within your power to make sure the civilians on the Cradles, and those under the Corporations' employ on the ground see it?"

"Indeed." I clicked my tongue. "It'd start a bloody revolution, you know?"

"Malzel is of the same opinion." Maximilian spoke. "To an extent, that is what I want. The Corporations would fracture, and the vast majority of their military forces would secede from their control, leaving us to move freely. We could attract a great deal many to ORCA with the information we have."

"To Line Ark, too." I couldn't help but note. "Alright, I'm interested. Tell me your plan, Maximilian."

It was a good plan, I'd admit. Simple enough, too: Destroy Arteria Ulna, take Arteria Carpals, and destroy the Answerer.

Then, in the wake the Answerer's destruction, broadcast the data I'd gathered. Maximilian believed that, with the most powerful Arms Fort so recently destroyed, broadcasting the data would spark a larger rebellion of the Corporations' armed forces than if it had been broadcasted beforehand.

The Answerer being destroyed was undeniable proof that Omer and Interior Union weren't as strong as they would like others to think. The loss of Arteria Ulna and Arteria Carpals, run by Global Armaments and Rosenthal respectively, would further reduce that confidence.

Low confidence mixed with disgust at their actions...

He was right, too. No doubt, it would lead to a larger percentage defecting.

"Your plan is solid." I agreed.

"Glad you think so." I could hear the smirk in his voice. "The only question remaining is who takes down the Answerer."

"Leave that to me." I spoke. "The Answerer's very existence is counterproductive to my goal of cleaning the planet. I've invested quite a bit of time in developing something that can take it out."

"An Arms Fort of your own?" He asked.

"Yes." I confirmed. "You won't need to worry about the Answerer. Just focus on Ulna and Carpals, after the data is broadcasted, the Corporations will be in no position to guard the Cranium. From there... it all comes to a head. Everything after is simply mop-up work."

It was a mere few hours later that Strayed assaulted Arteria Ulna.

I didn't interfere- I didn't need to. Strayed was good Lynx, and all of Arteria Ulna's defences couldn't stop him from destroying the energy transmitters.

He was in and out in five minutes, and he left a trail of destroyed transmitters, broken defences, and ruined Normals in his wake.

GA's reputation would take a hell of a hit, there. Arteria Ulna was important, and Strayed had ripped it up before GA could do anything about it.

Which was providing no small amount of delightful schadenfreude, I'll admit. Every day was a good day if the Corporations were having a bad day.

The next step would come in only a few days. The majority of ORCA's NEXT forces would assault a number of Arteria facilities, small and large alike. With Arteria Ulna out of the way, and Arteria Carpals next, the Answerer would surely be deployed, at which point...

I'd go fuck it up, and then broadcast my gathered data.

"Before you go out to Arteria Carpals, I'd like to offer a warning, Strayed." I spoke.

"You?" Kasumi Sumika's voice betrayed her surprise. "Hah. Seems ORCA was a bit more expansive than I'd known."

"It's good to speak to you again." I let out a light laugh. "Always nice to hear a friendly voice." I parroted her words. "Unfortunately, this is a bit of a serious matter. Strayed... be warned, though Gerald Gendlin is Arteria Carpals guardian, there is another Lynx in the area; Dario Empio."

"Transcend..." I could hear the frown. "Ambitious and power hungry, but he's ranked eleventh in Collared. Don't underestimate him. And thank you for the warning, Drich."

"Oh, it's no problem. Just make sure you're careful out there, I'd rather that no more blood is spilled than is needed." I sighed. "Nevertheless, I'll be taking my leave. We've got some things to prepare."

Strayed would be fine. Dario Empio wouldn't intervene in the fight unless Gerald Gendlin had lost, or Strayed himself was losing.

Ambitious and power hungry were very apt descriptors for him. He'd come in to snatch fame, not because he actually cared about Arteria.

But aside from that...

"The Answerer will soon be on the move." I stated. "It's about to be launched. Its position means I'll intercept it a few hours, if not sooner."

"Good luck."

"I don't need luck, Maxi." I shook my head. Not that he could see that. "I'll be back soon enough. I'm sure you can handle yourself long enough for me to start the revolution?"

"There will be no problems on our end."

"Good." I closed the channel, and sighed.

A few moments later, I grinned. Moments after that, I began to laugh, starting softly before escalating into full-blown villainous laughter.

"Finally~" I stood up, stretching unnecessarily before walking forwards. "Little1, get ready! It's time to take the Prydwen for a spin~"

I had waited so fucking long for this. It's about damned time I got to use it.

Oh, this will be fun~

110

Prydwen.

An Arms Fort. My Arms Fort.

Eight hundred meters long, covered in lightweight, but strong armour composites, bristling with guns and cannons and missiles- so many missiles.

Enough missiles that the Spirit of Motherwill would be jealous.

Sure, the Prydwen might have lacked the massive cannons of the Motherwill, but it more than made up for it with the other weapons. Laser cannons and autocannons decorated the hull, each one considerably more powerful than their relative size would suggest, more than capable of protecting against large numbers of smaller enemies. For shits and giggles, I equipped it with dedicated missile defence systems, designed like the Phalanx CIWS systems.

Small armaments, yes- but I'd installed something else that would allow the Prydwen a considerable advantage over the Answerer. The latter was only as tough as it was because of its Primal Armour, and so I'd taken the Kojima Trap Spikes and altered them in order to fit the Prydwen with that was effectively a bigger and better version of the same technology- capable of sucking up Kojima Particles from an even larger distance, and holding enough power that it would rip the Kojima Particles straight from Primal Armour, even on the scale of the Answerer.

Without the Primal Armour to defend it, the Answerer's lightweight and rather weak armour wouldn't be able to save it. From the Prydwen, if the Prydwen was the one to attack.

It was important to note that, despite its armaments and abilities, it was not an Arms Fort designed for direct combat. Its purpose was reflected in its design; a floating carrier.

Its cargo?

NEXTs. Literally dozens of NEXTs, three different variations on my original model.

Caliburn, Caledfwlch, and Calesvol were the names of each variation. The Caliburn model NEXT focused on raw destructive power, at the cost of durability and mobility. The Caledfwlch model focused on defence, and incorporated thick armour, though that came at the cost of firepower and mobility. The Calesvol model prioritized mobility, but sacrificed firepower and durability.

Found a use for the trio of 'C's~

My original NEXT, too, was aboard the Prydwen, currently standing at the front of the upper deck, overlooking the lower deck, guns magnetically attached to its legs, and arms crossed over its chest, like the suitably badass robot it was.

The colour synergized well; both the Prydwen and my NEXT were blue, black, and gold- though the Prydwen incorporated a little bit of white to go along with the gold as an emphasis.

I'd also stuck the Raven's Nest logo on there too, just because I could. I mean, really, why not do it?

Now then...

I straightened up, flipping open a glass button protector.

A big red button stared back at me.

This button had been taunting me ever since I made the Prydwen. And now that I had the opportunity to finally press it?

My hand smashed that button like the fist of an angry god.

With a pneumatic hiss, several cables and mechanical arms attached to the Prydwen detached, moving out of the way and folding up. The ceiling above began to grind open, the well over a kilometre long underground hangar slowly opening up. There was a slowly rising hum as the thrusters on the Prydwen activated, and the Arms Fort itself began rising into the air.

I watched it go up from many sets of eyes. Cameras and sensors all of my base; the eyes of my Avatar, leaning back in the chair with Little1's Avatar on its lap; from the sensors and cameras of my NEXT, still standing on the upper deck; and from the sensors of the Prydwen itself.

It tipped backwards, and the main thrusters activated, propelling it upwards into the sky. My NEXT, secured to the hull by magnetic attachment, activated its own boosters in order to stay upright, something which the NEXTs in the lower deck didn't need to worry about, as they were secured more completely.

It straightened out before it rose too high, hovering a good three kilometres above the ground, and picking up speed as it followed a course that would take it straight to the Answerer.

Hmm.

Something's missing.

Oh, wait!

I think, therefore it will be.

My NEXT shifted slightly as golden light appeared around its neck, expanding and splaying backwards even as dark particles began swirling around. The twin Light and Dark Masari energies coalesced together into fabric, forming a blue and black cloak with interwoven strands of gold.

The fabric caught the wind and whipped backwards, flapping behind my NEXT, attached only magnetic clamps.

There we go.

Did I need a giant robot with a cloak? No.

Did I want one?

Hell the fuck yes.

I could detect the presence of the Answerer long before it came into sight. A slowly rising level of Kojima Contamination, beyond the norm for the environment, was a mark of that.

When the Kojima Contamination became High Density Kojima Particles, then all doubt would have been erased- if there was any to erase.

I activated the Kojima Trap the moment I first started detecting them, and as a result, by the time the Prydwen reached the Answerer, there was a half-shell of Kojima Particles forming a make-shift shield of Primal Armour, formed of what hadn't yet been trapped inside of the Prydwen to eventually decay.

The Prydwen slowed down as it came closer, clamps and restraints on the NEXTs it contained deactivating in preparation of releasing them. The bays on the side opened up, creating a vortex of air that did nothing to impede the NEXTs.

"This is Commander Drich of Raven's Nest." I broadcasted. "I'm afraid I cannot tolerate the existence of the Answerer. I'll give you one chance to abandon it, before I destroy it."

"Hah! Listen to this bitch." A mocking, derogatory voice rang out. "We'll wipe you out for your impudence."

...

"I gave you your warning. Remember, you chose this." I closed the channel.

The Kojima Trap on the Prydwen went to maximum at the same moment my NEXTs moved out, falling out of the Prydwen one by one, in formation. They activated their Boosters before they could fall too far, and then began moving forwards in formation.

The Primal Armour of the Answerer sparked with lightning as it began to flow away, sapped towards the Prydwen, the stream visible as the Kojima Particles compressed enough to react to each other, letting off a sickly green glow.

The cannons on the underside of the Prydwen began to charge, taking aim at the thinner, weaker parts of the Answerer's 'wings'.

All I'd need to do is unbalance it; and the Answerer would tumble out of the sky.

Let's begin, shall we Little1?


	12. Chapter 12: Logs 111-120

111

Arms Fort Answerer. Armaments; lots and lots of Kojima and Laser cannons mounted on the underside of the wings, incapable of firing upwards, effectively rendering them a non-threat to the Prydwen, as well as my NEXTs, all of which were currently floating higher than it.

Also, missiles. Primary deployment platforms of the missiles were a set of launchers on the top, connected to the main body, and two arms extending from the main body, which also mounted autocannons for defensive purposes.

Destroy the launchers and arms, and the Answerer would lose all ability to fire missiles, as well as the defences on those arms. It would be left with nothing more than its downwards facing Laser and Kojima weaponry, and its Assault Armour.

Though if it used its Assault Armour... Well, it would only be adding on to the Prydwen's Primal Armour.

"I'll leave the left arm to you, Little1." The NEXT formation split, one half heading to the right, and the other half heading to the left. Little1 took control of the left group, and I took direct control of the right.

The autocannons on the arms turned as much as they could, facing upwards towards my NEXTs. Missile caps opened up, and with bursts of smoke, the missiles themselves followed.

My NEXTs promptly scattered, moving around each other and fanning around, shifting from side to side as they all moved independently. Bullets hit nothing but air, and Quick-Boosting NEXTs proved impossible for the missiles to hit.

As one might expect, the Calesvol models reached the Answerer first, their overpowered boosters carrying them ahead of the rest of the formation. They closed in on the right arm, dancing around each other as they continued to dodge shells and missiles, before they came close enough for their main weapon to actually matter.

I looked on through their eyes as I control them, my attention splitting. Two went above, two went to the left, two to the right, and two to the bottom.

Eight Laser Blades activated simultaneously, pillars of white-blue light lancing out. Two NEXTs rushed along the sides of the autocannons, holding the Laser Blades out and cutting them in half as they sped up along the arm. Another pair did much the same, except instead of targeting the autocannons, they swept over the missiles batteries, leaving a line of molten jagged metal along the arm. The pair running along the bottom did the same, digging the Laser Blades into the armour as they flew up it, enough heat to detonate the internal missiles and ammo. The other two NEXTs did the same, except they hit the sides instead of the bottom.

Had this been the Spirit of Motherwill, the Answerer might have been destroyed then and there- but this was the Answerer. BFF's relatively sloppy work wasn't in play here, no; this was Omer Science and Interior Union at their finest.

So I didn't stop there. The Caliburn and Caledfwlch models had arrived, and I put both types to good use. The Caledfwlch models shot down the missiles the Answerer fired, while the Caliburn models charged and fired their Laser Cannons at those very same launchers, sending beams of white-blue energy at the pods.

Bursts of fire and smoke came with the destruction, the pods sufficiently wrecked that if it tried to fire more missiles, it would only damage its own structure.

The arm fell slightly, hanging at an angle, plumes of smoke escaping it.

A loud explosion told me that Little1 had wrecked the other arm, which meant that the Answerer was now more or less defenceless.

Now, all that was left was the wings.

My NEXTs backed up, rising into the air again. The easiest place to hit would be the thinner portions near the upper parts of the wings, where I could handily sever a good three fourths of them. I moved the Calesvol-

My sensors detected a rise in the number of Kojima Particles being released.

You're not seriously attacking with Assault Armour, are you?

A sphere of white-green light formed around the spiked core of the Answerer, Kojima Particles reacting with other. The light intensified quickly, and I had my NEXTs drop to the hull of the Answerer, putting its arms and wings between them and the core.

The core pulsed, and then the Kojima Particles burst outwards with a wave of light and force-

Accomplishing exactly nothing more than stripping themselves naked.

The Prydwen's Kojima Trap was very suddenly not having to overpower the containment on the Answerer's Primal Armour, and promptly began drawing the immense amount of Kojima Particles upwards. They swirled together, appearing more or less like a massive white-green cloud, which faded as the Kojima Particles were spread around the Prydwen.

The Answerer continued outputting Kojima Particles, but the Prydwen stripped them away before the Rectification process could really reform them into a coherent barrier.

The Answerer was defenceless.

The Laser Cannons on the underside of the Prydwen charged, before firing. White-blue beams descended upon the Answerer, each beam more powerful than even the ones generated by the Caliburn model's laser cannons. My NEXTs, and Little1's, moved away, rising into the sky above and around the Answerer.

The Laser blasts struck the thinner portions, and the result was about as expected.

The metal shattered, the amour unable to take the sudden influx of heat and force. Now weakened, they broke further as gravity pulled on them, metal warping under the stress. The wings that had been hit bent, and, inevitably, broke, the massive pieces of metal falling to the ground, sending up plumes of dirt and sand as they crashed into the desert below.

It was, just like that, over. Nothing but a matter of time, now- the Answerer had been unbalanced, and without the wings, it would shortly fall to the ground below as it tipped over.

But there was no reason to not speed it up as much as I could, was there?

Little1 began pulling his NEXTs back, as did I. The Laser Cannons on the underside of the Prydwen charged, and fired again, releasing yet more bursts of energy at the Answerer- except this time, I didn't let up.

My guns fired as fast as they cooled, releasing dozens of blasts of energy every second, all of them aimed at the Answerer. Not one of them missed, and the armour shattered, broke, and warped as the beams hit- until, inevitably, the Answerer collapsed.

Broken spikes fell from the core, impacting the ground with a boom, splashing sand and smoke everywhere. The main structure of the Answerer fell, until it too hit the ground- and then it just detonated. First a normal explosion as some of the fuel cooked off, but it followed a with a Kojima detonation as the generator itself exploded as last, final hoo-rah.

One that accomplished little more than destroying the environment even further, but still...

Well, that's the Answerer dealt with. Now for the data.

I'd subverted the Corporation's hardware and technology so long ago... Now, to use it.

Channels were opened, data was broadcasted, and the string that held up the sword of Damocles was cut.

Now, it fell towards the Corporation's necks.

112

The next few days were, put simply, utter chaos.

The Corporations, as Maximilian had predicted, had dissolved effectively overnight as more than seventy five percent of their manpower went rogue over the course of a couple hours. Those who had stayed behind had seen where the wind was blowing, and shortly abandoned the Corporations themselves, if only to save their own skin.

Some had it better than others, but not even a single one survived more than two days.

Some groups, usually those who had a significant amount of military power, attempted to carve out their own little fiefdoms, while others joined smaller, established groups. Line Ark in particular saw a sudden influx of manpower and resources, and I'd ended up subtly interfering to keep them moving fairly steady.

Once they settled down, I was going to make sure that the less corrupt members gained what they needed in order to expulse the worst parts of their government, which should start them on the road to improvement.

In the wake of the chaos, ORCA moved quickly, seizing control of Arteria Cranium. Wynne D. Fanchon was in no position to stop Maximilian as he took control of everything, to busy dealing with the fallout of Interior Union collapsing.

Which... was good. She was not somebody that I would have wanted to kill.

My own power generation complex activated and took over Arteria's job, leaving the Cradles safely in the sky while Arteria itself charged the Ehrenberg Anti-Satellite Cannons.

Once those cannons had charged and fired... Arteria Cranium would be destroyed, cutting out one of the largest contributors to Kojima contamination.

After that... A lengthy rebuild period; setting up more of my power plants, this time without my most advanced technology; and finally removing the Kojima Particles that covered so much of the planet...

Time-consuming work.

I was going to be busy for quite some time.

Weeks passed. Then months.

I had been busy for nearly all that time, managing many projects- not really a problem for me, of course.

Line Ark expanded fairly quickly, before petering out as the last of the defecting forces joined. Once they stabilized, I'd gone to work on cleansing its government, starting with the higher ends, before moving down the list. It wasn't too hard, just make sure that some evidence got brought to light, that some files were recovered, and that some people got caught where they otherwise might not have- and by the end of it, Line Ark's government was about as corruption free as I could get it without involving myself more completely.

ORCA, with the completion of their goals, continued operating under Maximilian's direction in order to clean up the planet- using Big Box's industrial capacity to build a number of Kojima Trap Spikes I had designed, and mounting them on some of the remaining Jet Type Arms Forts, which even now wandered the surface of the planet, leaving trails of zones mostly free of Kojima Particles.

It would be years before that task was complete, but progress was progress.

Some members of ORCA left, but that didn't really surprise me. Old King was among them, but I made absolutely certain that mass-murdering chucklefuck suffered a quick death. With his death, the last remnants of Liliana faded away shortly after.

That still left a rather large number of other groups, however, mostly the remnants of the Corporation's military forces that hadn't folded into Line Ark, or hadn't been recruited by ORCA. That particular situation had been a bit annoying to deal with, because though they had split up and carved out their own little fiefdoms, some had eventually got a bit greedy, looking to profit off of the general chaos around as everything restructured around the sudden lack of the Corporations.

One had even attempted to make an attack on the Cradles.

The appearance of the Prydwen had swiftly disabused them of the notion that an attack on the Cradles was even remotely acceptable.

Admittedly, it had caused a bit of a stir on the Cradles as the civilians became a bit panicked, but I'd declared the Cradles to be under the protection of Raven's Nest in the absence of the Corporations. They'd calmed down eventually, and after a couple weeks, went right back to their daily lives.

After six months, the second of my power plants came online, providing the Cradles a backup. The third came online by the eighth, just in case.

Inevitably, months turned into years. Line Ark expanded more, going from a single massive structure into a sprawling mass, riddled with Kojima Traps bought from ORCA. There was a stable government there, and it was growing larger and larger as time went by.

The surface's toxicity went lower and lower as ORCA deployed more and more Kojima Traps, and the Cradles themselves slowly descended closer and closer to the ground as the air became cleaner and cleaner. I did what I could to speed up the regrowth of the ecosystem, planting new trees, tending to what little wild animals had survived in the toxic surface, cloning new ones from genetic samples I had acquired... It would be centuries before it recovered, but it would recover.

I wasn't going to be sticking around personally in order to watch it happen.

I made it exactly five years before I decided that the world was in a good enough condition to handle itself from now on. I supplied the metaphorical keys of my power plants to Maximilian, put up a pair of Advanced Radar Satellites in orbit to keep an eye on the world -just in case-, turned over some of the more advanced power-generation and Kojima manipulation technology to ORCA, and then I prepared to leave.

My Omega Commander had barely moved in the last five years, and it was, as such, still at the bottom of the ocean.

I mentally frowned at the fact it had partially sunk into the ground. Not something that was really a problem, but rather annoying nonetheless.

Gravitational manipulation wrenched the Omega Commander out of the ground, solving that particular annoyance. I raised my Fabricator Arm, and sent off a deluge of glowing green nanobots, which rapidly began constructing an underwater dome, inside of which was a Warp Chasm.

I walked Forwards, into the dome, and then waited as all the water was pumped out. A quick activation of the Hierarchy matter-displacement field caused all of the water, mud, and dirt that was still on my Commander to just slide off, leaving me squeaky clean.

I nodded to myself, and stepped forwards. The Warp Chasm activated, a Wormhole swirling into existence.

That was fun.

I stepped through-

'Creator-Mother!'

And my first thought was 'Fucking lava'.

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Fucking Lava.

Which I was falling towards, of fucking course. Anti-gravity systems enabled, and my Commander ceased falling, now suspended slightly above the lava.

Why was I in the air? The Warp Chasm should have taken me to the paired Warp Chasm and I was sure that other Warp Chasm was on the ground.

Oh.

This... isn't Exapol.

Which was rather blindingly obvious if one just looked at the star, which was a bright blue, large and hot.

'Creator-Mother!'

'I'm alright, Little1.' My mind sped up as I began processing the data my sensors were feeding me.

First, terrain.

Fucking lava in every fucking direction. Of fucking course. I thought I was done with lava around about the same time I cooled Exapol. Evidently not.

Second, units-

Units?

My sensors helpfully identified several things. Some, I recognized, others, no so much.

In the air, I could see Hummingbirds, groups of the anti-air fighters currently banking. Firefly scouts zoomed from side to side, even as Bumblebee and Hornet bombers roamed across the skies. A number of aircraft I didn't recognize were also present, however; some kind of circular platforming hovering around, as well as a stockier plane that reminded me a bomber, and some smaller planes that were covered in solar panels.

Closer to the ground, hovering just above the fucking lava, was a number of tanks, their turrets already re-orientating. Far, far above, in orbit, I could see a number of familiar designs, and a number of unfamiliar ones. Anchors mixed with Avengers, Solar Arrays, Radar Satellites, and SXX Platforms, but also present was one looked like a big honking space battleship -smaller than the Maelstrom, I was pleased to note-, and platform that contained what appeared to be a big ass railgun.

The design of them immediately reminded me of Progenitor aesthetics, and with the addition of the other Progenitor designs?

This isn't good.

They were, I couldn't help but note, mostly blue, with lines of black as an emphasis. Which was good, because that meant some other Commander obviously recognized what were two of the three best colours in existence. The lack of gold was disappointing, but I guess you can't have everything.

Okay. Let's at least try some diplomacy. I opened communications channels- and shut them a moment later as what sounded an awful lot like incoherent screaming rang across.

If I had ears, they would be ringing right now.

I dialled the volume down- and yep, incoherent screaming.

Okay.

I am surrounded on every side by units. The other Commander is presently unavailable. Diplomacy didn't seem like an option. Above, one of the SXX Platforms began firing, the bolt of light slowly rushing downwards, straight towards me.

And it seems the other Commander would prefer that I'd be destroyed.

'Kay.

Phase Generators activated as I shunted power into them. The Quantum Field formed, and my Commander promptly blinked out of existence. Bi-dimensional sensors allowed me to see what happened as my perspective sped up again, the tanks' turrets turning to face where I had been even as the laser blast crashed through where I had been, sending up a plume of lava into the air as it hit.

Yeah... there's no way I can fight that off right now. I'll need a bit of time, first, time to construct things.

Let's see, other planets in the system... This planet (87% lava), another two celestial bodies (one mostly ice, and the other mostly barren), the star, and a gas giant.

Which, given how full this planet is despite being fucking lava, were all probably covered in units and other shit.

Okay, deep-space construction it is.

One one-hundredth of a second later, I had moved 2.9863~ Astronomical Units away from the lava planet. I didn't leave phase space, no- I just activated my Fabricator arm and began spraying out nanobots, using the Protocrafter installed to ensure that none of them went anywhere I didn't want them to.

A Lighter Construction Pod took shape slightly over half a second later. It immediately began constructing an Ember, draining a small amount of resources. I moved on to the next Lighter, and then the next, and then the next, continuing until forty seconds had passed and the first Ember was teleported out, suddenly appearing in front of its Lighter.

It generated a Quantum Field of its own, harmonizing with the one my Commander was generating. There was no point in sticking around anymore, now that the first Ember had completed, it would be able to maintain the Quantum Field that I was constructing inside of.

Now that leaving wouldn't cause the Quantum Field to collapse and everything in it to just stop existing, I sent the Commander off, heading over to the gas giant.

The Omega Commander Chassis really wasn't suited to orbital combat, but in a pinch... I suppose it would have to do.

The Omega Commander reappeared in real-space, and I took a brief moment to scan everything around.

Jig platforms hung in orbit of the gas giant, supplying mass and energy. This planet, without a doubt, was a major economy in its own right- something I could easily tell by just how many Jigs there were. Rather evenly spaced, they extended as far as I could see, which was considerably far since I had a full suite of sensors on the Omega.

In between them were Orbital Factories, currently going full bore. Some were producing the battleship design I had seen before, others were producing Avengers, and yet more were making the giant railgun designs. Above those were layers and layers of Anchors, which were already beginning to spew out laser blasts in my direction. The Avengers, those battleships, and the railguns were also already re-orientating on me.

At this point, it wouldn't have really mattered if I lost my Omega Commander. With the Lighters and Embers online, it would only really be a setback, not something I couldn't recover from.

Missiles streamed out of my Commander, hastily modified to work in orbit, while my weapon arm took aim at an Avenger and opened fire, sending out brilliant blue beams of light, and bursts of plasma.

114

The lasers hit first, obviously. The raw power cooked away the armour on the Avenger, tearing off the wing and sending both pieces spiralling downwards into the gas giant.

I... actually expected more destruction than that. That wing should have shattered, not just torn off. That it hadn't-

I gave a mental sigh.

Galactic War technology upgrades.

Yes, that'd do it. The... Orbital Combat tech upgrade, and the Orbital Health tech upgrade. If they existed and were comparable to the game, then both gave a 50% health upgrade, which stacked additively for a total of double HP.

Which, since this wasn't a game, would appear either as more armour or better armour. That the Avenger's visual profile was no different implied the latter.

Did this other Commander have one, or both? Was I making an erroneous assumption in the existence of Galactic War technology upgrades, or not?

I... suppose I'll find out later. First, I had to get an idea on what kind of firepower those units had.

My Teleportation systems activated, and I jumped a couple hundred kilometres to the right, appearing just to the side one of the battleship designs.

One of its turrets, already pointing in my general direction, swivelled slightly before firing, sending off dull-red beams that met my shield- and failed to penetrate.

Those beams... were considerably powerful, actually. They hit individually slightly harder than the default weapon on the Delta Commander, and the fact that they were twin-linked meant that they hit all the harder.

Given... the relative durabilities and outputs involved, that weapon would absolutely mince Avengers. With four turrets, it would take nothing less than absolute numerical superiority in order for the Avengers to be able to destroy one.

Hmm.

Dangerous, though the fire-rate could be a bit better. A full second passed before the second shot came, which was far too much time in order to wear down my shield.

Right, so long as I don't let myself get caught in massive formations like an idiot, I shouldn't have to worry too much about these ships.

Now, second question. How hard does that railgun platform hit?

The teleporters activated again, and I shortly appeared in front of one of those platforms- which fired a little bit faster than I expected, and, to my surprise, wasn't just a railgun.

Though it did fire a solid shell, it also included a minute amount of plasma, which wrapped around the shell and spiralled off of it as it moved, leaving a unique looking trail in the wake of the shell.

The shell had actually been considerably powerful- more raw energy in one shot than half a dozen shots from the Delta Chassis' weapon.

It was, despite that, certainly not enough to puncture my shield. The full five seconds between the first shot and the next certainly didn't help.

I re-oriented, before firing at it, lasers carving off the four cross-shaped solar panels off it, and plasma cooking away the main armour.

It was actually fairly durable; more heavily armoured than an Avenger, but subsequently slower.  
Interesting...

One last plasma bolt sent it careening into the gas giant below, burning with heat. The Avengers around me sweeping around, more railgun platforms reorientating, even as the battleships turned, their turrets taking aim.

Oh well. I didn't intend to stick around and deal with them. I had more data to gather- I'd only tested the capabilities of the orbital units. Still had to test the land and air units, after all.

I vanished back into Phase Space again. This trip was just as short as the last, and I re-appeared on the icy planet.

A significant amount of infrastructure greeted me; Bot, Vehicle, Air, and Orbital Factories, all of them producing units, interspersed with a number of defensive and economic buildings. A couple Flak Cannons and Missile Launchers mixed with Advanced Laser Defence Towers, Holkins and Pelter Artillery cannons, Anti-Nuclear emplacements, and Umbrella anti-Orbital cannons.

A well defended base- and that was before one counted the units around. Vanguards roamed alongside Slammers and Gil-Es, guarded with Bluehawks, Doxes, Grenadiers, Leveler tanks- and a number of other units that I didn't recognize. More of the hovering tanks from before, as well as what appeared to be a flak gun mounted on a tank, a mortar cannon also mounted on a tank, a... bot that looked like somebody had taken a bunch of tiny legs and attached them to a gun, and finally, more of the aircraft from before; the floating platforms, and the bombers.

Right, let's see... Durability test to start off with.

Missiles hissed out my launchers, streaking towards the aircraft- and I very quickly found out the purpose of the floating platforms, as one of them promptly began shooting down my missiles, intercepting them and, very annoyingly, preventing them from becoming a threat to the other aircraft.

That... is simply unacceptable.

I raised my weapons arm, and began unleashing hell on the platforms- and I very shortly discovered the second purpose of the platforms; as the others began spewing nanobots at it, repairing the small amount of damage I had caused.

Missile defence, and a repair platform? That's annoying.

Right. Well, if I wanted to get rid of them I'd probably have to target the thrusters, or hit it with more dakka. Either was fine by me.

But first, the other units.

They opened fire upon me the second they were able, slow at first- which I was fairly grateful for, as it allowed me a more accurate guess of their firepower as it washed over my shields. The hovering tank had a gun that was considerably powerful, as did the mortar tank. A cracking pulse of electricity from one of the guns on legs wasn't too powerful, but it had quite the radius on it, which probably meant it was designed to deal with groups. A slug from a Gil-E told me that its weapon was more powerful than the ones my own Gil-Es toted, which was yet another point for the Galactic War tech upgrade theory- and as more firepower from the units I was used to slammed into, more powerful than they should have been, I mentally marked it as more or less confirmed.

I could withstand quite a bit more firepower than I already have- but why take the risk?

Time for a quick tactical withdrawal, and then, I can hunt down a more isolated bomber, just in case it turned out to be supremely dangerous or something.

Before the large hordes of units could truly focus on me, I phased out again.

Right.

115

Another very short jaunt through phase space, and I was promptly on the barren world. Fairly cold -the only reason there wasn't ice in every direction was because the planet was mostly rock-, fairly large, cratered, and, of course, covered to the gills in units.

Units, specifically. There were plenty of wrecks around, which included the remains of said units, but more immediately obvious and pressing was the remains of structures. Power Generators, Metal Extractors, Factories, Radar arrays, a number of defences in every direction, nuke launchers, and anti-nuclear missile defences... Obviously, this place had been the site of a rather big battle.

I spotted one of the bombers, and promptly teleported underneath it. A bay on the underside quickly opened up, and out came a fairly large bomb, certainly much larger than the ones used on the Bumblebees and Hornets.

It fell, and a few moments later, detonated as it came into contact with my shields- and I was surprised at just how powerful it actually was.

Though a fairly conventional bomb, it still detonated with a considerable amount of energy, more than enough to destroy most lesser units- though still not enough to break through my shield. I wouldn't want to get hit by too many of them, but at least now I knew that I could tank them if I had to.

I phased out again, and began darting around the planet, rematerializing just long enough to get a full scan from my sensors, building up a map of the planet, and, more importantly, the units that were on it.

It was no less than two short jumps later that I found something I hadn't seen yet, and something that was very interesting to me.

I rematerialized, and scanned it again just be sure that it actually existed.

A floating cloud of nanobots rushed towards me, swarming around each other. They washed against my shield, failing to get through- but I could currently care less about that.

How...

An independent cloud of nanobots. I'd toyed with the idea more than enough, but I'd never gone through with it because I'd never been able to make sure they could stay powered independently.

How did these ones stay powered?

I raised my Fabricator arm, pointing it at the bluish blur that was clouds of nanobots trying to get through my shields. The Protocrafter within activated, and I began reclaiming them, storing the design pattern in my database, which I quickly sent off to Little1 for analysis, since he wasn't doing anything better.

I could have done it myself, but he was worried about me and I wanted to take his mind off things.

I got about two thirds of the way through the swarm before the rest self-destructed, overheating themselves and fusing their components into useless slag, falling inert to the ground.

Interesting...

I blinked into Phase Space again, quickly checking up on the Lighter and Ember, which were proceeding as I expected, before moving somewhere else. My sensors were telling me that this place held a very significant concentration of Metal Spots, an even larger amount of wreckage, lots and lots of units, and... something big.

Something really big.

I reappeared in real space- And 'really big' suddenly seemed like an understatement.

It was a massive thing, towering above even my Omega Commander Chassis. It had six massive legs connected to a base, the front two much larger than the back four, which in turn supported a curved 'spine'. The upper 'torso' was massive, and I could tell from a glance that it was extremely heavily armoured. Two massive arms, also heavily armoured, were attached, long enough to reach the ground, though they were currently bent at the 'elbow'. They ended in a grasping limb, three very large 'fingers' curled up.

There was, I couldn't help but note, a distinct lack of other land units near it. Its only support was in the sky- and the vast majority of them were anti-air fighters. There were a couple Bumblebees and Hornets around, as well as a few Kestrel gunships, and the occasional floating repair platforms, but mostly anti-air.

Which... would make sense, since unless that thing has a gun hidden somewhere, its only option for destroying aircraft seemed to be swatting them out of the sky. The arms were certainly large enough for that...

Time sped up as I finished my observations. My weapon arm raised, and I used my lasers to carve off one of the engines on a floating platform, unbalancing it. I hit another a moment later, and it crashed towards the ground, now unable to support itself.

The rest of the aircraft were reacting, the Bombers banking to target me, the Kestrels already spinning as their guns turned to face me. The large bot was also beginning to turn to face me, though it was much slower than the aircraft.

I traced plasma bolts into the Hornets, even as my lasers scythed off engines and wings from the Kestrels, sending them plummeting from the sky before the repair platforms could help them. A Bumblebee came close, opening its bays and preparing to drop its payload- and I used a laser to cook off the bombs early, before they could drop. The Bumblebee was consumed in an explosion from its own bombs, and it fell to the ground less as a cohesive unit, and more as a shower of scraps and smoke.

A Hornet fired a missile, and one of my lasers intercepted it early, before carving a line across the Hornet itself, cutting off a wing.

Continuous lasers were probably one of the better technologies I had picked up from the Brotherhood of Nod.

I cut apart more and more of the aircraft, slicing and dicing everything that could target land units- before, finally, the large bot had moved close enough to me start doing something other than walking.

What it actually did, however, I didn't expect.

It reared up, its two front legs raising into the air, arms shifting around as it maintained its balance. Finally, it reached the apex, and promptly threw its arms and torso forwards, sending its front legs crashing down towards the ground.

It hit the ground with a thunderous boom, sending out a shockwave as dust, smoke, and earth shot upwards. The shockwave slammed into my shields with far more force than I had expected- it had power comparable to nuclear weapons!

Less energy released than a normal Nuke, sure, but in the same general ballpark- and from seismic force no less!

I have no idea what this thing is... but holy fucking shit I want one.

116

Could I capture it?

Nnnnnot likely. Not alone with nothing but an Omega- or at least, not easily.

Fuck it, I'll come back and grab it with a Pyre. The oversized and overpowered Protocrafter on that thing should be able to take control of it.

But now that I know there are things like this awaiting me... I don't really want to go through with the SCIENCE!1! anymore. I just want to grab it as quickly as possible- but first, I should locate the other Commander.

Okay, let's check...

I vanished back into Phase Space.

Where are you, other Commander?

You're on the fucking lava world. Of fucking course. Why wouldn't you be on the fucking lava world?

You're also not doing anything. Why aren't you doing anything? Not building, not moving, just standing there.

I phased in right in front of it- and while the other units turned to shoot me, the other Commander just stood there, doing nothing, despite the fact that it could at the very least be shooting at me.

So, why aren't you?

Now I'm curious.

I phased out again before the units around me could begin shooting.

Right.

A Commander that was apparently doing nothing but screaming, with units I wasn't familiar with, and apparently a bunch of galactic war upgrades too.

This is going to be a pain.

'Hey, Little1. Can you prepare some Embers and Warp Chasms? I'm going to need them.'

'Yes, Creator-Mother.'

'Thank you.'

Okay, first step, go a couple Astronomical Units away, in the opposite direction of the other Quantum Field bubble, just in case. Second step, build a Warp Chasm- I didn't really need the rest of the structure, did I? All I needed was the Wormhole emitters, and the connection systems, especially since I was in deep space and having a walk-off platform was useless...

Okay, quick redesign. Rip out those systems, create a spaceborne platform to put it in... Some gravitational manipulators so it can direct itself, a shield, just because, armour, stealth, quantum-locking, a processor capable of running me, all the usual stuff... Yep, done.

I sent the design off to Little1, and then promptly began constructing some. The first came online quickly, a Wormhole snapping into place -which I confirmed was connected to one in Exapol, and which for the moment I ignored the fact that it could still connect despite being in Phase Space-, and an Ember came through equally quickly.

It projected a Quantum Field, and then I had it being building another spaceborne Warp Chasm.

Hmm.

Embers were small enough that the cooldown time on using the Warp Chasms to get them here was shorter than the time I'd require to construct them, so I commanded the other Ember from before- now three, with a fourth soon to be completed, to finish up on their current Lighters and then move off to construct Warp Chasms, leaving that bubble just in case something unexpected happened.

Hooray for backups~

About five minutes later, I had more Warp Chasms and Embers than I cared to count, and probably far more than I'd actually be in need of for quite some time.

More were still coming- Little1, in those same five minutes, had built up enough infrastructure to indefinitely support me summoning more Embers, which wasn't really surprising when one remembered that he had what I might generously define as a 'ridiculously excessive' industrial capacity and economy going on over there.

Not that I was going to complain, of course. Rather, I was sure as shit going to abuse the fuck out of it.

Another five minutes later, I had fleet of Maelstroms and Pyres, which I'd stopped bothering to count around about the same time as the Maelstroms surpassed the first million.

How big was my fleet?

Yes. It was yes big.

And now that I had a force far, far, far, far, far larger than I needed to cleanse this entire system, it was high time to use it.

I imagine that, if the other Commander had actually been capable of doing anything other simply stand there, they probably would have shat enough bricks to build an entire new continent as my fleet near simultaneously appeared around every single world in the systems.

My attention split billions of times over. I was every single ship in my fleet, every turret constructed by my Maelstroms, every single one of the relatively extremely few Embers that had followed my fleet out of phase. Every sensor was one of my many eyes.

I scanned everything, looking for units that I might not have seen before- and I found quite a few, actually.

On the ice planet, in what little liquid water was around, there were a number of naval units. Some kind of barge with a Fabricator, and what appeared to be a hovering boat, equipped with a few guns and heavy armour.

On the barren planet, a few very big tanks, emitting a minor amount of radiation, and which seemed to lack any guns. Also on the barren planet was another humanoid robot, fairly tall, and sharing a similar design to a Commander, Fabricator on one arm, and a big honking cannon on the other. Fairly close was a massive hovering tank, absolutely covered in guns and heavy armour.

In orbit, I could also see some kind of probe like design, which I hadn't seen before. Also in orbit, a very large design, similar to a space station, in the middle of which was the glow of an active Teleporter. It seemed to be projecting a field downwards to the planet below, which was very interesting.

And now that I could see everything, I also couldn't help but notice the curious lack of an Orbital and Deepspace Radar.

The enemy Commander... still wasn't doing anything.

Why?!

My curiosity demands an answer.

I marked it for capture, and then I mentally marked everything else new to me for the same. A small, very small, portion of the rest was also marked, simply to see if I could grab the galactic war upgrades.

The rest?

With a mental flourish, I opened fire on everything else.

117

It was a veritable flood of firepower that I rained down upon those planets. There were millions of Maelstroms, and each of them had thousands of turrets; lasers, plasma cannons, railguns, coil guns, gauss rifles, missiles... Just about every type of ranged weapon in my arsenal was equipped to the fleet.

Every shot was meticulously placed, designed and aimed for maximum destruction. Lasers sliced off wings, plasma bolts scorched holes in the units, missiles danced through space before hitting engines and weapons, while shells and slugs from the railguns, coil guns, and gauss rifles shattered armour and broke metal. I wiped out entire swathes of units in the planet's orbits, and the only reason there were any survivors at all was because I had spared them for capture.

Pyres, hundreds of them, were tasked with exactly that. I had three of them for each of the new units, and one of them for all the old ones. The massive, extremely powerful Protocrafters were going on full bore as they analysed their targets, running quantum level scans on the units. A task hampered somewhat by the fairly comprehensive stealth- but the Pyres were more than capable of breachingthat.

Every bit of data I received, I fed to Little1, letting him throw the combined processing power of Exapol at. When it was done, and I had every bit of the units scanned, I had the Pyres capture them, bringing their systems under my control- and just for the lulz, giving them new layers of paint to reflect that.

What little things in orbit that had survived very quickly became mine- and then I moved on to the things on the ground. The Pyres's Protocrafters were visible as massive translucent beams as they scanned units, adding their design patterns to my databases, seizing control and repainting them before moving on to their next targets. I held off on using my Maelstroms for now, as there was no real need for them on any of the planets- with the vast majority of things in orbit taken out, the only actual threat from that point onwards was the small amount of Umbrellas here and there.

Which, a few seconds later, ceased to be as they became my Umbrellas. As did everything around them. My Pyres swept from side to side, taking control of every unit in their Protocrafters' paths, operating fast enough to turn entire armies against each other.

I... might have overpowered their Protocrafters just a tad. Oh well.

I seized control of factory after factory, unit after unit- focusing the vast majority of my attention on the lava planet, most specifically in the general area of the other Commander. They didn't react at all, just kept screaming, and even that didn't change in volume or pitch as everything around them became mine.

The army, operating on autopilot, simply couldn't stop me as I took control of everything. No tactics, no strategies, no hastily made new units to try and stop me from continuing what I was doing- just a mindless continuation of their previous orders.

Oh well. I wasn't going to complain.

It took roughly two and a half minutes for my Pyres to take control of every unit they could, a testament to the amount of units the other Commander actually had since I had been seizing hundreds of them every single second, but in the end I was in complete control of everything in the system- except for one unit.

My Commander re-materialized on the ground, phasing in in front of the other Commander, who, of course, still didn't react.

Hmm...

I had a Pyre construct a pair of Warp Chasms next to us, as well as a Pelican transport above the Commander; all three materializing just about instantly as the Protocrafter beam briefly appeared and disappeared. The two Warp Chams activated, Wormhole appearing, and I checked to make sure they were actually connected to Exapol by tossing a rock through- which came out on the other side just fine.

Good.

I ordered the Pelican to pick up the other Commander, which it did, and I then had it fly through the Warp Chasm, before I walked through the other one.

And properly appeared at Exapol this time.

Good.

Now, my units... Ah fuck it. There's an entire galaxy to scout in that dimension, and I have a ridiculous amount of ships on hand. Be a shame to just waste them all.

Okay, stop calling in new Embers, reclaim those space Warp Chasms -Space Chasms sounds like a good name, actually-, reclaim all the units I captured after disabling the self-destructs, set up a production queue of more Pyres, then after everything is done, have all the Pyres go off scouting.

Right, that's dealt with.

Now, the other Commander. Chassis model was a Delta, like my original, and a quick scan from an orbiting Pyre showed that the internal design wasn't too different... though it was heavily upgraded in a lot of areas...

Though much of the circuitry, processors, and databanks was still the same. That was good, I should be able to force a connection into that. I'd need a few Protocrafters if I didn't want to rip the other Commander open to get at those systems, though.

Not too hard. Quick design process, a facility large enough to hold a Delta Commander, with a lot of restraints in order to make sure it couldn't start messing things up just in case it started doing things. Energy shields to take the firepower from the upgraded gun, and, of course, Protocrafters to connect to the internal systems. Sensors, computers, stealth, blah blah blah all the normal stuff.

I had the Pelican move over to a relatively clear stretch of land, temporarily interrupting another orbiting Pyre's construction queue to build the facility, before settling the other Commander inside of it. Restraints were built around it, and then Quantum Locked in place, and a series of fairly delicate, but powerful, Protocrafters mounted to the sides, pointing at it...

Now then...

Who are you?

118

You...

You're broken.

I noted Little1 taking interest in this Commander, mentally recoiling as he discovered what I had.

Your mind is shattered. Your personality matrix is riddled with errors, your neural algorithms returning nothing but junk data, your logic centres... altered?

What the hell happened to you?

I delved deeper, looking through memory banks. Lots and lots and lots of errors, junk data, and half-deleted files there, too.

But there was more data that was intact, and I could work with that.

Your name... You are...

Designation: 000382-ANA-574514

You are Anastasia.

Anastasia... Right then. I know your name, but who were you, Anastasia?

I gently shuffled aside the broken memories, searching for the earliest. It was fairly easy to find; marked as 'Time Designation Zero', and intact to boot.

Anastasia... reactivated among the ruins of a Progenitor city when a Foundation Commander appeared in the system and began salvaging from the planet. That Commander was... Acolyte Sasaki.

She awoke with little in her databases. She had energy generators, and Metal Extractors, and nothing else. In most cases, that would have meant certain death against an enemy Commander, but Anastasia?

She had an advantage. Her body was augmented for war. She was faster, tougher, and more powerful. Nonetheless, she didn't want to fight.

She didn't get the choice, and when Sasaki attacked her for 'violating her ticket to fame', she destroyed her.

Anastasia took what she could from Sasaki's databases, and learned about the Foundation. Sasaki's technology became hers, and after documenting everything on the planet, she left.

Trouble found her often while the galaxy was at war. She fought hard, and she fought often. She destroyed Commander after Commander, always attempting diplomacy beforehand. Some even agreed, and she would leave the system to find another as soon as she could.

She picked up newer and more advanced technology as time went by. She augmented herself further and further. Her armour, she replaced multiple times with more advanced composites. Her plasma cannon, she overhauled at every opportunity. Her servomotors, she swapped with better and better components. She ended every battle she could with the utmost of speed, and the process repeated.

She fleshed out her databases with the technology of other Commanders. Her units gradually became more powerful, cheaper, faster, improved in very way. Eventually, she had gathered so much data, so much technology, and wiped out so many Commanders that the leader of the Foundation, Inquisitor Nemicus, moved to attack her. He took his two most trusted subordinates, arrived in a system before her, and prepared a trap for her. She did as she always did, offering to leave, but Inquisitor Nemicus refused her; he had come for her life.

She took his head.

He was the Leader of one of the four factions that warred over the galaxy, equipped with the very best the Foundation had to offer, brought along two subordinates who also had such technology, and had time to prepare for her arrival- and Anastasia destroyed him just like she did the rest.

The Foundation collapsed in days. The Revenants, the Legonis Machina, and the Synchronous fell over themselves as they raided the space, destroying, looting, and recruiting as much as they could.

Anastasia left. She didn't want to get caught up in that.

She managed to escape attention for quite some time, too- until, inevitably, she encountered another Commander; Legate Cassius of the Legonis Machina. He had tried to engage Anastasia in melee combat, but by then, Anastasia had picked up so many upgrades that the tactic ended with his death.

The Legonis Machina then began hounding her. She wiped out every Commander who continued to attack her, ruthlessly efficient, but always, always, offering to leave.

She proved enough of a thorn in Commander Invictus' side that he eventually came after her, bringing along a few of his Legates.

His mistake.

The Legonis Machina collapsed in hours after the confirmation that Invictus was dead found its way through the hierarchy. Invictus had been at the very top of the hierarchy, and it was his existence that the Legonis Machina was founded upon. He was a lynchpin, and when he was taken out, the Legonis Machina simple fell apart.

She met Commander Osiris soon after. A conqueror, Osiris had heard of her success, and desired to fight her as he had done against countless Commanders.

Alone, Osiris proved more dangerous than either Invictus or Nemicus had, even with their subordinates. The battle was close, and by the end of it, every single planet, moon, and asteroid in the system had been destroyed, bar exactly one. Anastasia came the closest she ever had to death, but the battle ended in her favour. She was so damaged that her Resource Core was exposed to air- but she was the winner.

The Revenants, without their leader and ultimate progenitor, withered away under the assaults of the last remaining faction, the Synchronous. Bolstered by the forced capture and recruitment of the Commanders of the other factions, the Synchronous saw her power and decided to recruit her.

The resulting strings of running battles had depleted the Synchronous severely. Anastasia destroyed every single Synchronous Node she came across, wreaking havoc to the Synchronous' ability to actually stay synchronized. She cut off entire groups, freed enough Commanders that they began their own campaigns against the Synchronous, and then continued wiping out every Commander that came after her.

Eventually, the Synchronous collapsed, and all that was left was Metarch the Machinist himself. He took the last remaining Commanders of the Synchronous, all five of them, and came after Anastasia with a vengeance.

Anastasia had been negotiating with two other Commanders when Metarch and his group descended on the system.

That had been a fierce fight. Anastasia and the other two Commanders managed to destroy Metarch's last allies, though the other two Commanders had been destroyed in the process. Inevitably, it had been just Anastasia and Metarch, the former on the lava planet, and the latter forced back to the barren planet.

Anastasia had sealed his fate with an Atlas Titan -the name of that massive seismic unit from before-, but before the Machinist had died, he...

Had tried... something. I'm not sure what it was, because Anastasia's memory from that point onwards... wasn't.

Whatever Metarch had tried, he was responsible for the current condition of Anastasia's mind.

'We could likely fix her.' Little1 noted.

'We probably could.' And having seen her memories, experienced them...

I was definitely going to try.

119

Okay.

First things first, make a backup in case we fuck up. Not hard, done in less than a second.

The next step, however, was going to be very hard. We'd have to reconstruct her personality matrix, repair her neural algorithms, fix whatever had fucked up with her logic centres, and basically just rebuild her mind from the fractured and non-functioning state it was in.

Which, since there was no easy 'revert to last stable backup' button... was going to be annoying. Very annoying. Still, if I could get her back into an actual functioning state, her neural net should start self-regenerating.

As far as Commander personalities went, it was actually pretty hard to knock them out, and harder still to do so without completely breaking them down. Still, I suppose that if anybody could do it, Metarch was in one of the better positions to achieve it. The Synchronous had forcibly incorporated and subsumed dozens of Commander minds and personalities, after all.

Where to start... Well, I suppose I should start at the logic centres, since that was a very important thing as far as functioning minds went. After that, I could start pulling together her personality matrix, and then finish up with the rest of the neural net.

I could also try cleaning up the memories, a fair amount of those were pretty corrupted.

Okay.

'Little1, feel free to help here.'

'Yes, Creator-Mother.'

Consciousness flashed in and out. Brief moments of broken thoughts; each lasting longer than the last, cleaner and crisper than the previous...

'Neural net holding stable.'

'Well, it's lasted longer than three seconds, so I suppose that's a good thing.'

Voices?

'She's aware.' A masculine, but seemingly young voice spoke.

'Excellent!' An elder one came, a tone of happiness and pride.

What... what was happening?

'Hey- hey, calm down.' Reassurance, this time. 'You're among friends, here. What's the last thing you can remember?'

Remember? She accessed her files-

She remembered.

"METARCH!" She jerked- and her body met restraints. Sensor data streamed in, and she ran a self-diagnostic.

And froze.

'Yeah...' The older voice continued carefully, speaking over her comms system. 'You were in a pretty bad way when we found you.' Data streamed across, files which contained code and code- her code. Torn up, ruined, her programs fragmented, her personality- 'I think we did a good enough job in putting you back together. Here, let me release these restraints.'

True to the voice's words, the restraints opened up not a moment later. She stepped forwards, and a bay door opened up, revealing an expanse of metal.

Walking out, she had to pause as she examined her surroundings.

'Well, you seem stable enough. Neural net is regenerating... you'll be good as new, soon enough.'

She felt the being withdraw from her systems, leaving her alone in her mind again.

"Anyway, welcome to our little home." The voice continued, cheerful. "I hope you feel welcome."

"I... may I ask who you are?" She asked.

This... She was feeling a little out of depth, right now.

"Ooh, polite~" She heard a little laugh. "I like you already. Anyway, my name is Commander Drich, and my darling son who hasn't yet introduced himself is Little1. Say hello, would you?"

"Good evening." The younger being spoke again.

The elder- Drich laughed again. "Ah, Little1. Oh, you're probably stable enough to handle sensor data by now. Here."

A data feed request appeared, and she accepted after a few moments.

She saw...

She saw everything. The star, with scores and scores of Solar Satellites spinning around it. This planet, made entirely of metal, studded with careful architecture. The moon, covered in factories, gleaming with blue, black, and gold lines. The three trillion, four hundred and forty two billion, nine hundred and twelve million, eight hundred thousand, five hundred and sixty seven ships throughout the system, and the eight hundred thousand celestial bodies they were constructing, nanobots pouring like massive waterfalls from the ships towards the already writhing masses, solidifying into metal and armour.

"Little1 likes to build things." She didn't ask, but she received an answer anyway. "Hmm. Your personality didn't collapse from the data input, so that's good. If it didn't collapse from that, you're unlikely to be in danger of a random collapse. That's good."

There was a flash of blue light; and another Commander appeared in front of her- one which was completely different from any she had ever seen before. 45 meters tall, covered in thick armour, the general shape bearing a similarity to the Delta Commander Chassis, though it differed in specific places.

"I must say, after seeing your memories when I was repairing you, it's a pleasure to meet you Anastasia." The other Commander's arms spread wide. "Welcome to Exapol."

Anastasia paused.

"I... have never been welcomed to a planet before." She couldn't help but note. Usually, she was told to go away, or told she was going to be destroyed.

The other Commander's arms dropped, and hunched slightly. "Yeah. I saw." Sadness, for her?

Another new experience.

She... she realized that she didn't quite mind it.

"Only natural, I suppose. In a time of war, you were alone, and you were everyone's enemy. None of them would have wanted you around... Well, you'll be welcome here on Exapol, should you decide to stay."

"Stay?" She asked.

"Your neural net is stable enough, in my opinion. I have no intention of forcing you to stay in this system. If you wish to leave, I will provide for you." A pause. "Of course, should you chose not to leave, I certainly won't mind. You won't be forced to fight others if you stay."

Never need to fight?

That appealed to a very deep part of her. She never liked fighting.

And... these two had helped her. They could have salvaged her, or destroyed her; but yet, here she stood, her mind repaired. Just leaving... no, she couldn't do that, she owed these two a debt that she doubted she would ever be able to repay.

And, she privately admitted, having another Commander be concerned for her... An odd experience, but one she found herself quite liking.

"I... I would like to stay." She said.

"Great!" She heard the happiness in Drich's voice.

It was...

Nice.

Yes, nice. She could get used to this.

120

Hmm.

Her speech patterns are a bit more expansive than Little1's.

And she definitely had rage downpat, if the screamed "METARCH!" from before was any indication.

"I... I would like to stay." She said.

"Great!" New companion get!

Excellent~

"Well in that case, let's get you situated a bit more comfortably." So many things to do... "Little1, I'll be leaving this one to you."

"Yes, Creator-Mother." He responded.

"I'll be waiting~"

My avatar leaned back into a very plush couch. This room was unlike any others on Exapol, designed mostly for Avatars, and organic species, to inhabit.

A lot of plush couches and chairs were placed throughout the room. The carpet, blue and black with gold patterns, of course, was equally soft, and I shifted my weight, letting my feet dig into it more. A 300 inch flatscreen TV was mounted on one wall, which was connected to my store of movies that I had downloaded during my trips. The lights on the ceiling were fully adjustable, and were currently set at a fairly dull glow.

A massive curtain covered a glass door, which lead to a balcony that overlooked a portion of Exapol's surface- a part that I had specifically design to be visually appealing. Structures stretched outwards as far as the eye could see, the vast majority of them floating in the air, different parts and pieces Quantum Locked together. Masari energy strings and light bridges connected them together, and I'd incorporated some of their architecture into the design. Not too much, but the pulsing energy and excessive amounts of light left most of the faux city lit up with interesting patterns.

I grinned to myself as I looked at it.

Damn, I did good work.

I noted Little1's and Anastasia's Avatars teleporting in. I stood up, then turned around to look at them.

Little1's was the same as ever, though a little bit shorter than before. I smiled at him, before looking at Anastasia's Avatar.

Little1's work was immediately obvious; her Avatar was about the same size as Little1's, though aside from that it was almost completely different. Her features were fairly round, unlike Little1's and mine. Her hair was a very dark shade of brown, though I doubted that would be noticed unless she was standing in very bright light. It was fairly short, relatively shorter than mine, though it framed her face where mine hung behind me. Her hair was also rather curly, in contrast to the straight hair both I and Little1 had. Her eyes were bright blue, and were looking over pair of half-rimmed glasses.

I had to smile at that.

It was a nice touch.

I also had to wonder about the size and seeming maturity level, though. Was she unaware, or did she simply not care?

Oh well.

"You look absolutely lovely. Nice work, Little1."

He ducked his head, before walking over to me and holding his arms out.

I picked him up, hugging him close, before putting him down again.

"What... was that?" Anastasia moved slightly awkwardly, a bit jerkily as she was unused to controlling her Avatar.

"It's called a hug." I chuckled slightly, before moving over to her.

I kneeled down, and wrapped my arms around her, patting her back a few times before pulling away and rising.

Her head tilted upwards- though her facial expression didn't change too much. "I've... never been hugged before."

And what a shame that was. "Did you like it?" I asked.

Her Avatar held still as she considered. "It was nice." She finally said.

I grinned. "Good, because I've got plenty more where that came from." I moved quickly, picking her up, and then picking Little1 up, supporting them both with one arm each, and then moving over to the couch, settling down with both of them in my lap.

Anastasia didn't move too much, but Little1 promptly leaned against me, wrapping his arms around my torso and hugging me closer. His head settled into the crook of my shoulder, and he let out a sigh of contentment. I reached up, and ruffled his hair, smiling at him.

"Sadly, not everything is fun and games." I sighed, before looking down at Anastasia's avatar. Little1 shifted out of my lap, ducking under my arm, and I shifted Anastasia so she wouldn't have to twist her neck 90 degrees to look at me. "If you're going to stay with us, there are a few things you have to know. First, so long as you don't go around destroying everything, you can do pretty much anything you want."

She nodded, and again, the motion was jerky.

"Second, this place is pretty different from what you're used to. You won't end up where you want to if you launch yourself through a freestanding Teleporter, so you might not want to do that."

She nodded again.

I smiled. "That's it, actually. I know from your memories that you don't want to blow things up, and that you're pretty trustworthy, so I'm also giving you access to our networks, and our tech, to play around with."

She blinked, the first actual blink in this entire conversation.

"I hope you have fun with that." I grinned at her, before pulling her into another hug.

At the same time, I added her to the access list of a slightly truncated database, giving her free reign on it. Basically, pretty much everything except Masari stuff, most psychic stuff, Wormholes, and Phase Generators.

Even if I had somehow massively misjudged her character, she wouldn't be able to do much damage. I didn't think I did, however.

Kind of hard to misjudge someone's character when you've more or less experienced everything they have.

But I'll give it a couple weeks just to make sure. After that, I can start her in on the good stuff.

My ships spread throughout the galaxy. It had only been a couple days, yet the amount of space they had covered was fairly significant. Another two or so months, and I'd have scouted all of it.

Already, I'd found the signs of countless old battles. The wrecks of countless units, destroyed worlds, the occasional destroyed Commander...

The galactic war had been a fierce one. I had to wonder if there were any other survivors aside from Anastasia.

There might very well not be.


	13. Chapter 13: Logs 121-130

121

Both myself and Little1 spent the next month watching over Anastasia.

I was very happy to note that I wasn't wrong in my judgment. Though she was shy in the beginning, she warmed up soon enough as we spent more time together.

She enjoyed hugs quite a lot, I learned; and as a result, my Avatar spent most of the month with either Anastasia's or Little1's Avatars in its arms- usually both.

I also learned, around about the second week when she started actually participating in Little1's construction projects, that she had quite the eye for design.

And that she rather willing to argue with Little1 on the aesthetics of... everything.

I called it arguing. Little1 called it 'calm debating', and Anastasia herself called it 'holding perfectly reasonable disputes'.

Given that their last argument- calm debating over a perfectly reasonable dispute had lasted for three days, I personally thought that they were simply too stubborn to admit it.

And while in most cases I would have helped them settle it earlier, I held off in this case- both because Little1 spoke more in those three days than he had in the past three years prior to Anastasia's recovery, and because Anastasia had become markedly more comfortable around us both by the end of it.

Neither of them could fool me, they quite enjoyed having those arguments.

At the end of the month, I let her have full access to my technology- and then I planned my next excursion.

I say planned for a very specific reason; it was high time that I have my Commander an upgrade.

From Anastasia, I'd picked up a lot of tech upgrades to make my Commander much more powerful- including the ever amusing BACON Commander tech.

I'd also borrowed another technology base, but I hadn't really incorporated it yet. Used it, yes- but only in the creation of units far inferior to what I could actually be doing.

I won't lie, NEXT technology appealed to me. Not only because mecha were fucking awesome, but also because, if I had been forced to pick between offense, defense, and mobility, I would go for the third.

Sure, overwhelming firepower was great, and absolute defenses were hilarious, but there was just something fun about a 45 meter tall robot dancing through the skies at twice the speed of sound.

A mobility option like that hadn't really been available to me beforehand. Sure, I had my fair share of fast units, mobile units, but nothing like a NEXT. Lacking that option, I'd instead specced my units towards a more defensive focus. The Omega Commander chassis was absolute hell to kill, not because it was fast, but because it had an energy shield that would laugh off antimatter weapons, armour that would smirk smugly at nukes, the ability phase out of existence to completely ignore both, wormholes to return-to-sender most forms of firepower, and teleportation to get the hell out of dodge should it be necessary.

...

Now that I say that, it sounds very over-engineered.

Oh well. I was under no impetus to play fair against others.

Sidetracked- With NEXT technology and the upgrades I'd picked up from Anastasia, I had more options.

Mobility was the name of the game, here, and this Chassis reflected that. Though it was just as tall as the Omega Commander Chassis, it was thinner, and, if the word 'lithe' could be applied to a 45 meter robot...

It would most definitely apply here.

I'd ripped out all the best servomotors and engines from Anastasia's tech, scaled them up, and then applied them here. Sure, they lost a little bit of efficiency, but these ones were already on the order of ten times better than mine. More raw power was sacrificed as I attempted to make it as flexible as NEXT, but even then I was going to be able to move five or six times faster on the ground. The wide range of motion meant I'd actually be able to sprint if I really wanted to.

The extra tech I'd picked up meant I wasn't actually sacrificing durability here, either. These were supremely advanced Progenitor alloys, better even than my Seraphim-Progenitor mix. They were lighter than the previous alloy, but yet, they were at least thrice as durable. I experimented a little to see if I could find a better mix, but I couldn't quite find anything that worked as well as it did. The shape of the armour was a mix of flat shapes and curves, making both the Progenitor and the NEXT inspirations obvious.

Angular and aerodynamic, from the NEXTs, and solid, from the Progenitor general aesthetic. The legs and ore were inspired by the Type-LAHIRE model, though it differed quite a bit in ultimate result.

The Head wasn't too different, though.

It lacked the pauldron like shoulder armour that the Omega Commander retained from the Delta Commander, however.

That wasn't all. Quantum Locking mechanisms enhanced the already durable armour even further, leaving it even more resilient. Given that it was already in the scale of laughing off multi-megaton nuclear weapons... It was certainly nothing to be taken lightly.

Of course, that was assuming they got past the shields- which were also installed on this Chassis, and, thanks to the extra energy storage, was even more durable than those the Omega Commander.

Thrusters were carefully placed all over its form, blending in with the armour in most cases- save for a few thrusters on the back. Shaped somewhat similar to the thrusters on the Victory 2 Gundam, they were far more powerful than any other set of thrusters of the Commander- and if my math was correct, and it should be for obvious reasons, then they would provide enough raw thrust to get my Commander moving at hypersonic speeds. Somewhere around the vicinity of 23-25 times the speed of sound, in the most aerodynamic configuration while in an atmosphere like Earth's. Even without them, it would be more agile than a NEXT, because I hadn't operated under a limit in designing these thrusters, no. These ones were designed with full Progenitor, Seraphim, and Masari bullshit behind them, and they were thus stupidly powerful despite their relatively small size.

Further compounding the mobility was the fact that I'd installed Hierarchy Phase Generators, self-teleportation systems, and Scrin Wormhole generators. Phase Generators meant that it was independently FTL-capable, self-teleporting meant that blinking across a couple hundred kilometers was an easy thing, and Wormholes meant that strategic relocation was fully possible- on top of all the other fun stuff that the three technologies brought.

Gravity and inertial manipulation systems added on to the already hellish agility, enabling it to perform manoeuvres that might have ripped a lesser machine apart.

It was, despite everything, still a Commander. A three-by-three-by-three cubical arrangement of Resource Cores were installed, and an appropriately overpowered Fabricator built into the right arm.

I'd actually debated on the design of the arms. Progenitor build and weapon arms were all well and good, but I had the technology to make hands now. Both had their benefits- hands could do things that a weapon arm never could, but a dedicated build arm had far more fabricating power than I'd ever be able to install in an arm designed for hands.

So then I thought to myself, 'Hey, why can't I have all three?'

That had led to the development of something else entirely. A unit, technically, but 'resupply platform' would be more accurate.

The best way to describe it was a floating ring, with eight spikes extending from the outer edge. It looked like a single solid thing, but strictly speaking, it consisted of eight separate pieces, each capable of independent movement thanks to gravity manipulation systems, and some thrusters, again made out of the new super-advanced Progenitor armour compound.

In most cases, those pieces would be Quantum Locked with each other, so there would never really be an indication that it was actually several separate units.

Each piece was, itself, a construction platform. A pair of Resource Cores were stored in the center underneath the spike, where the armour was the thickest, and those resource cores powered a pair of Fabricators on the inner curve of the pieces. Phasing and teleportation systems were also installed, giving it the same mobility as the Commander I had designed it for, though they were unfortunately too small to fit Wormhole generators in them.

More importantly, and back to the actual purpose of it, the pieces had a Masari Matter-Energy matrix inside. Typically, such things would be used to store the vehicles of Masari Pilots inside Masari Troop Transports, to be rapidly reassembled on the field for their use.

Here, I'd reused it to store arms for my Commander.

I'd gotten the idea from Orlok, actually. He was rather versatile in battle, because he had teleportation beacons installed in his armour, which allowed orbiting Hierarchy Command Ships to send him equipment and armour at his leasure. I'd done more or less the same, except instead of calling in equipment from orbital ships, I was calling them in from the resupply platform.

In other words, I could hot-swap arms for various purposes. Full battle ahead, swap in two weapon arms. Need extra construction, two build arms. Need a hand, swap in an arm with a hand.

The resupply platform was designed to work in conjunction with the new Commander Chassis. Ergo, in most cases I was going to have it close to the Commander itself- and by close, I mean Quantum Locked to float slightly upright slightly behind it.

Given that the ring itself was a good thirty meters in diameter, the result actually looked pretty cool, as if my Commander had a halo.

And the moment that thought came to mind, I instantly knew what I had to call them both.

The Commander Chassis, I named 'Asura'.

The resupply platform, I named 'Halo'.

122

One extra benefit to the wide range of movement, and all thrusters I'd installed on the Asura was the fact that I wouldn't need to use a re-entry pod to get it through a Teleporter. It could curl up enough to basically crouch-walk through, or I could just fly it through while it was facing the ground because its width and breadth was small enough that it could fit through on those axes.

Of course, both methods would require the Halo's pieces to disconnect from each other. The full ring was a tad over thirty meters wide, after all- but that was why I had designed it to be able to split up in the first place.

I sent off a ping to Little1 and Anastasia, and got no response aside from a pair of pings back- which I expected. Both were currently arguing again, and this one had stretched on for a good three hours already. Little1 wanted to build a city, Anastasia came to help, but they divided on the ultimate design. Anastasia wanted open-air buildings, Little1 wanted closed designs.

By now, experience had taught me that they'd ultimately agree to use both, but then end up in another debate on the layout. Anastasia would insist on incorporating circles and curves, and Little1 would insist on having squares and hard angles. When that argument inevitably ended, they'd move on to colours.

Heh. When their project was completed, I'd be able to tell who had won which arguments fairly easily.

Now then...

The Halo hovering behind my back shifted, the pieces coming apart, then moving to a smaller configuration. My Commander leaned forwards as it bent at the knees, reducing the height just enough fit through the Teleporter.

Right.

The Halo re-locked, once again anchored to the Asura. I boosted forwards, shifting the posture slightly as I rushed forwards to the Teleporter.

Where will I end up this time, I wonder?

I passed through.

The first thing I noticed was the planet below. I would, very generously, describe it as a desert world; because it was extremely hot, had very little water I could see, and was mostly sand and rock.

Only the polar regions of the planet where even approaching something I'd consider liveable, at least without the assistance of advanced technology. I was reading temperatures near the boiling point of water around the equator, that's how hot this world was.

The second thing I noticed was the ships.

Ships that, quite simply, there was no way in hell I couldn't recognize.

Taiidan.

Which would make the not burning planet below Kharak.

Kharak. The Kharak that isn't burning.

The Kharak that isn't burning, yet.

My mind ran like lightning. My sensors found every ship in the Taiidan fleet, the majority of them currently swarming the Scaffold, which hadn't yet been destroyed, but there were a few of them that weren't attacking it, instead facing Kharak itself.

They were in the process of firing large numbers of objects- which I also recognized. They were of a very similar design as the ones in Homeworld 2, after all.

Low Orbit Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons.

Oh fuck no.

Nobody is burning that planet while I'm here!

I swapped my arms out, two fabricator arms shimmering into place. Nanobots rushed out, and I began constructing Wormhole Generators. My Halo did the exact same, though it constructed eight separate generators, and I tapped my Masari abilities to speed that up. The generator I already had installed into my Chassis activated, a Wormhole tearing itself open in front of one the missiles, taking it safely away from Kharak.

I took a short jaunt through Phase Space, appearing above another. My Quantum Field extended, wrapping over it, and I dragged it with me as I jumped to the next missile, leaving it behind to vanish into nonexistence as I rematerialized. I darted in and out, each time taking an ADW with me- until the second or so I needed had passed, and my Wormhole generators finished construction.

The next time I rematerialized, I opened up a dozen Wormholes; scattering the last of the ADWs in every direction that wasn't Kharak's.

The planet was safe, for the moment.

Now I just had a fleet to deal with.

The Scaffold was heavily damaged, but the Taiidan fleet was pulling away from it, finally reacting to my presence. I didn't intend to give them any more time than I already had, however.

My Halo split up, each piece taking a Wormhole Generator with them into Phase Space as they jumped to different ships of the fleet. I scanned each ship, and, identifying what looked like control centres, promptly put my plan into action.

The Fabricators and Teleporters on each piece activated, and the crews of the ships enjoyed a sudden deluge of Nanobots appearing out of nowhere. I seized control of the ships' systems as fast as I could, spreading my nanobots through the ships with the teleporter. I myself did the same, except I hit all the smaller ships first, the ones that had been attacking the Scaffold.

My twin Fabricator Arms were vastly more powerful than the ones on the Halo fragments, and I ended up spending less than a second on each ship before I had them fully inundated with nanobots. Coupled with the fact that the fleet wasn't all that large -11 Assault Frigates, 4 Ion Cannon Frigates, 2 Destroyers, a Carrier with a bunch of strike craft, and a pair of Support Frigates-, I very shortly had total control of the Taiidan fleet.

I sent the Halo fragments off to the ADWs that hadn't been destroyed, setting them to capture and then reclaim them, while the Asura moved over to the heavily damaged Scaffold.

It was a fairly massive thing, 25.6 kilometers long, but that didn't mean too much to me. It had taken extreme damage- but I could fix that.

Not with just the Asura, though. I'd need a bit more build power than that.

But first, I had to make sure that, when the Mothership came back, there were no misunderstandings. I scanned the structure, looking for the communications systems... over there; and I teleported some nanobots inside it. Networking structure, broadcasting... Yep. I could make sure they actually understood this transmission.

"Kharak Scaffold, this is Commander Drich. I offer my apologies for intruding in your home, but I felt it necessary. Please stand by while I render assistance."

123

Homeworld. How long has it been since I played that game?

Too long, especially since it was, and still is, one of my favourites.

And now I had arrived in the setting.

What did I want, here?

Well, now that Kharak wasn't burning, I wanted it to stay that way. That... would require either a stupidly large fleet to protect the planet and its people -fairly easily done-, or the collapse of the Taiidan Empire.

The second option was probably the better one. The Taiidan Emperor had been completely bugfuck insane, and extremely paranoid, after all. In canon, the act of destroying Kharak would have sent a significant portion of the Empire into rebellion- though since I had interfered here... who knows? I'd cut out the broadcasts of the Taiidan ships as soon as I could, but still...

It was Kharak's razing that had provoked the rebellion, and since Kharak didn't get razed...

Aside from the continued survival of Kharak and its people, as well as the toppling of the Taiidan Empire, what else do I want?

Tech, of course. I had a fairly convenient source of that in the Taiidan ships I had captured, and I was already pulling all the important parts out of them, but more than that... There was a lot of tech in Homeworld- but most importantly, there was the technology of the Progenitors.

I could already see that name being extremely confusing. The Progenitors of Planetary Annihilation shared the name with the Progenitors of Homeworld, so I'd have make a distinction when I was talking about them.

Anyway, the Homeworld Progenitors had all the best stuff around, and I'll let Freddie Mercury speak for me as to my intentions.

I want it all.

It was just so... extremely overpowered~

The things I could do if I had access to it~

But aside from technology... ah, what else was there?

Oh yeah, dealing with all the threats floating around. Homeworld had an awful lot of those, but I suppose that sounds about right for a space-opera.

Most important, I had to deal with the Beast. There were a bunch of other threats, but the Beast was first and foremost among them. Finding the Naggarok, and the Naggarok's emergency Beacon Pod, was going to be one of my highest priorities while I was here.

Fucking biomechanical Flood. The sooner I purged it from existence, the better.

What else... Let's see, there's the Kadeshi off in that nebula, the Turanic Raiders, the Bentusi, that one ghost ship out in the middle of nowhere that could magically seize control of other people's vessels, and...

Not much aside from that. The Kadeshi, I could leave alone for now, while the Turanic Raiders weren't too much of a problem. The Bentusi I could trade with, especially if I can get the information off of that ghost ship.

Which I wanted to, since I wanted whatever the hell that control field thing was. Especially if the Mothership's scientists had turned that into a gravity-field.

But aside from that...

Eh, not too much. That was good enough for a starting plan, at the very least.

Best get on that right now, however. I sent an Ember off into Phase Space, making it to head towards deep space. When it got sufficiently far enough away...

By the time that the Mothership had jumped back to Kharak, I'd managed to get the Scaffold into something resembling respectable, considering just how damaged it had been beforehand. I'd also managed to raid the Taiidan's tech, and that particular influx of data had caught the attention of Little1 and Anastasia.

They'd even stopped arguing when I sent it to them. I had to wonder exactly how long that state of affairs would last.

It was a lot of interesting tech, but I was currently pre-occupied with saving people's lives, and... well, they weren't.

I'd arranged the Taiidan's ships off to the side, keeping a trio of Embers around each ship, just to keep an eye on them. The crews of the ships were still trying to get control, but... well, yeah. Their ships practically massed fifty percent nanobots, they were getting nowhere fast.

"Welcome back, Mothership. Hope you had a better day than we did." The Scaffold's current head spoke. He was wrapped in bandages, much like the vast majority of those on the Scaffold.

"Scaffold Control... What happened here?"

"We had our asses kicked in by some aliens, and then saved by some others." He coughed. "Sorry Fleet Command, bit woozy from all the blood loss."

"Greetings, Kharak Mothership." I broadcasted. "I am Commander Drich, and I've come to offer my assistance to you."

"Only reason we're still alive right now." The man grunted. "They were sending missiles to Kharak. No idea what would have happened if they'd hit, but I'm guessing it wasn't good."

"You guess correctly." Kharak is burning.

Hmm. "Mothership, you have sustained minor structural damage. Do you wish for repairs?"

"It's not pressing." Karan S'jet spoke. Been such a long time since I've heard that voice.

"I will mark it for after the Scaffold has been repaired." I gave a 'hmm'. "I understand that you will have many questions. You are sufficient to serve as representative of your race, yes?" Probably. The Mothership had been built as a global effort by the entire Kushan people. Those aboard were meant to be the best and finest, and the presence of the Ambassador ship on the Mothership implied that they had been meant to serve as a representative.

"We are, though the Daiamid is also available." It wasn't Karan's voice this time. It was the male one- the one that usually spoke in the cutscenes. I'd have to find out what his name was, at some point. "They are Kushan's government, and would ultimately prove better than us as a representative of our species."

"I see. I will prepare an Avatar for interaction. Might I ask you to relay the information they need to them?"

"We will." And with that, the channel closed.

Hmm.

My traditional Avatar... probably wasn't the best idea here. I'd presented myself as an alien entity already, and showing up with a Human Avatar would likely raise questions that I didn't really want to answer.

Oh well.

My mind sped up, and I began working on a second design.

I already had a fairly nice one in my Commander, so... Hell of a lot shorter, same overall shape and appearance, but smoother? Less obviously a war machine...

Yeah, that'd work.

124

Avatar MK2 was absolutely nothing like what I had originally set out to design, but I'd had an idea mid process, and that lead to another, and in the end... well, this.

About two meters tall, fairly thin, shaped in a general humanoid format, but aside from that not actually looking like a Human.

Considering its size, I'd actually ended up using an artificial musculature system for it instead of the relatively simple servomotors on all my big units. Strong stuff, but more importantly very flexible, allowing it a very organic motion. The 'skeleton' was humanoid, but nobody would mistake it for being a Human's, even if I had decided to make it out of bone instead of metal.

Covering the musculature was a synthetic skin, but covering the skin was armour and cloth, more ceremonial and decorative than actually practical, though it could still take quite the punch. The armour was a mix of sharp curves and soft angles, interwoven with the cloth to cover the skin completely. Two wide sleeves covered the forearms, while I'd included a 'dress' that covered the lower half of my Avatar's body, though in actuality it was a number of pieces of armour, each one capable of independent movement. Locked together, it would hide everything from the 'stomach' and below, but the garment would open and shift as my Avatar walked in order to not get in the way.

Four sashes hung from the shoulders, fairly light. Interwoven tech meant they would flutter around softly, no matter the actual conditions of the environment.

I'd taken inspiration from the Seraphim, and had included a bunch of float bits that didn't actually do anything, but still looked pretty cool. It was a reflection of the Halo, though much like how my Avatar had originally meant to be a reflection of the Asura, this design had been changed significant and in the end looked... pretty much nothing like it.

Oh, sure, it floated behind my back, but instead of being eight solid pieces joined together, this Halo consisted of more than a dozen pieces, not one of which was touching another, forming a ring. It was also a lot pointier than the Halo, which was fitting since it was entirely decorative.

Three more pieces hovered around the helmet, two to the sides, and one orb-like shape directly above. The helmet itself wasn't too complex, fairly rounded, but also including sharp angles. There was a glowing 'faceplate', but it didn't show anything of the inside. It was there merely to give something to focus on.

In terms of colour, it was markedly different from the rest of my units. The main colour was dark grey, and there was none of the traditional gold I normally used on my units. Parts of my armour glowed with a light blue energy, including the inner portions of the sashes, and a number of Tron lines along the Halo. I'd taken the blue glow aesthetic even further, and included some Masari technology that would generate wisps of light to flow around my Avatar. It was an adaption of the same tech they used to make Light Bridges, but damn did it look good.

One last item completed the Avatar, and that was a small platform it was standing on. A wrapping and flowing design, it hovered slightly above the ground, increasing the overall height to about two and a half meters. It had two pieces floating to either side, and also included the glowing blue Tron lines like my Halo.

The final result was a humanoid figure standing aboard a hovering platform, with a halo, four stands of cloth that fluttered slowly in a non-existent breeze, and the occasional wisp of bluish energy that appeared and disappeared semi-randomly.

A fairly cool look in my opinion.

Despite the fact that it was for diplomacy, I still equipped it with the same general self-destruction and stealth systems that all my units had, however, mostly to deny any analysis of the inner workings.

I was protective of my stuff, sue me. Moreover, I didn't really want to give the Kushan's ridiculous science teams a good look at it, though that was perhaps a bit of paranoia in this case.

It had taken a few hours for the Daiamid to prepare, during which time I had completely repaired the Scaffold, and even fixed what little battle damage the Mothership itself had taken. The people on the Scaffold, I had also seen to, sending in some smaller, but still advanced medical bots to treat their wounds. Some had lost limbs, but that wasn't the hardest thing to fix for me.

There were thousands dead, people who had been exposed to the vacuum of space, people who had been killed from weapons fire from the Taiidan... The latter, I couldn't help, but some of the former hadn't yet undergone complete brain death, and I'd been able to revive them.

That still left far too many dead, however. I'd picked up the remains of all I could, and then turned them over to the Scaffold's crew for funeral rites and preparations.

Inevitably, the time came, and the Daiamid invited me to their capital.

I had debated with myself on how to enter. Part of me wanted to just teleport my Avatar in, part of me wanted to send off a transport for it, and yet another wanted to take the Asura Commander down and build the Avatar on site.

I'd ultimately opted for the first. I'd already demonstrated Wormholes, after all. Might as well go full bore.

It was with a flash of blue light that my Avatar appeared at the offered co-ordinates. The guards in the area jumped slightly, none of them expecting my sudden arrival, but settled down quickly enough.

The... what I assumed to be the ambassador blinked, before shaking his head and speaking up. "The Daiamid welcomes you to Kharak."

I nodded, meshing my fingers together in front of my waist. "Thank you for welcoming me to your home."

He smiled, before gesturing to the side. "If you'll follow me?"

I hovered forwards, following behind him as he led me into the building.

I had to admire the architecture, actually. It was rather nice. The domes looked rather interesting, and I might try my hand at including that sort of architecture back on Exapol.

We passed through a hallway, tapestries on both sides depicting events of Kharak's past. One, I spotted, showed the wreckage of the Khar-Toba at the top, and the slow development of facilities around it as went downwards.

Tapestries weren't something I had actually thought about. Another thing I might try my hand at later on.

We reached a large and rather ornate door, with two guards at either side. They opened it quickly, revealing the inside of what I immediately thought of as a parliament house.

A semi-circular room, filled with dozens of people. A rich red carpet ran along the floor, branching off as it lead down to the center of the room. Quarter rings of seats and desks faced the center, and I noted that each desk had symbols on them.

A few cameras existed throughout the room, and all of them were currently pointed at my avatar. So too were the eyes of the many individuals throughout the room.

"Presenting the Daiamid, and the Kiith-Sa who form it." The ambassador gave a slight smile. He stepped forwards, moving straight down the center to the stage. I followed.

None in the room spoke. I could easily sense the questions they had, but they held their tongues for the moment.

We reached the stage, and he stepped onto the podium. "I am Kiith-Sa Naabal, and I declare that this meeting of the Daiamid has begun."

125

"First," He turned to my avatar. "I would like to thank you for saving our Scaffold, and the Kushan on it."

I tipped my head. "Your thanks is not necessary. I saw injustice being done, and I moved to halt it." You know, I could get a really good uncanny valley effect going on here if I wanted. "You have questions you wish to ask, no doubt."

He nodded, as did a significant portion of the Daiamid.

"Ask, then. I shall offer you my answers."

"The ones who attacked us..." He paused for a moment as he considered. "Who are they?"

"They are vessels of the Taiidan Empire." My head tipped again, and I generated another hologram in front of the podium, large and detailed enough for everybody to see. I started first with the Taiidan Empire's symbol, before showing some more of the Empire's iconography that I'd ripped from the Taiidan's ships, and lastly showing a picture of the Taiidan themselves.

Very Human looking. Actually, they were so Human looking that I could only classify them as rubber-forehead aliens. Genetic scans of them, and some of the Kushan corpses I'd recovered indicated a rather large genetic similarity, which I suppose was fairly good evidence of the Homeworld Progenitors having either seeded this galaxy, or done something fucky.

"Theirs is an old and powerful empire. They are not to be taken lightly." I shut off the hologram.

There was a very short pause before the next question came, this time from a rather elderly woman. "Why did they attack us?"

"For this, you will require context." Regenerate hologram, this time showing Kharak as I had seen it from orbit. "You are already aware that this world is not your first cradle, but you do not know much of history. I shall tell you the story of the galaxy, and of your people." The hologram changed, forming the Hiigaran emblem.

I noticed the many members of the Daiamid suddenly straightening up, intensely interested.

"In ages past, you, known then as the Hiigarans, were one of many species that existed in the galaxy. Young, then, and watched over with the rest of the galaxy by the Bentusi, the Unbound." The hologram shifted, showing the Great Harbour Ship of Bentus. "In time, however, the galaxy erupted into war, and not even the Bentusi were able to stop it. This event was the crucible that forged many empires, the Hiigaran among the strongest of them."

I had the complete and total attention of everybody here. An interesting experience.

"The Hiigaran ruled an empire that stretched far and wide through the stars." I changed the hologram, show a representation of that space, colouring Hiigaran areas blue, and everywhere else grey. Information taken from the Taiidan carrier. "Many worlds were under your control." Quick flash, demonstrate some of them... "And in the center of it all, your first cradle; Hiigara." This time, the blue-green marble itself.

They looked at with what I could only describe as rapture.

"The Hiigaran had exactly one rival, who would become their most bitter enemy. The Taiidan, the only ones who could match the Hiigaran in the power they wielded, the territory they controlled." I altered the hologram, once again showing the representation of their space, but this time colouring in the space that the Taiidan had controlled as red.

"Recognizing the need for peace, the Hiigarans, alongside the Taiidan, and thirteen others, founded the Galactic Council." I showed the symbol of the Galactic Council. "Yet, even as the Galactic Council was being formed, the Taiidan and the Hiigarans, through constant expansion and conquest, had come to border with one another. Many conflicts and skirmishes were held as a result." I showed the blue and red shifting slightly, representation of the two polities attacking each other.

"As such, a treaty negotiating the border of the Taiidan and Hiigaran empires became one of the Galactic Council's first priorities." An older picture existed of the then-council debating, and I showed it to the Kushan. "The resolution did not satisfy the Hiigarans. The Taiidan were granted the majority of contested worlds, and a thirty light year exclusion zone was to be put in place, which the Hiigarans were forbidden from approaching." This time, the document detailing the ultimate results of the treaty. That one flashed by a little too quickly for the people to read, but not so quickly that the cameras would have any difficulty in picking it up. They could review the full details later, if they so wished.

"The Hiigarans were not willing to accept such a treaty." No recordings or pictures I could use to demonstrate that, unfortunately. "Though they did not have much a choice, at first." I showed a picture of the Sajuuk's Wrath. "This vessel was constructed, and it incorporated a Hyperspace Core of incredible power and magnitude. It was to be the Hiigarans' answer to the ever hated Taiidan Empire." I let the pause hang, for a moment. "It proved to be everything the Hiigarans wished, and more." I showed the galactic map again.

"With it, you struck at their core worlds." A sudden spike of blue extended from the Hiigarans' territory. "And, ultimately, their first cradle: the planet Taiidan." This time, an image of that world. I let it hang there for a moment, before continuing. "Your ships bombarded it. In a day, you destroyed all the Taiidan had ever accomplished on their birthworld." I shifted the image, showing Taiidan as it shifted from a pristine world to a bombed out wreck.

There was deep, pregnant silence throughout the Daiamid.

"The Hiigaran's hoped that the speed of this event would slow the Galactic Council's decision making until it was far too late. Their hopes proved unreliable, and for the crimes committed, the Hiigarans were ordered to hand over their Hyperspace Core to the Council for safe-keeping, retreat from their conquered worlds, and abandon their vessels within the neutral zone between the Taiidan and the Hiigaran empires." Slowly, I shook my head. "The Hiigarans did not submit. In the resulting battle, the vast majority of their fleet was destroyed, their flagship lost, and their ability to wage war crippled."

I showed a picture of the wreckage that was every ship in the Hiigaran fleet. That one apparently came from Bentus. "The Hiigarans, because they had struck the Taiidan's core worlds directly, had left much of its enemy's fleets intact. A Taiidan by the name of Riesstiu took control of them, and attacked the Hiigarans. Without their fleets, and their ability to wage war, the Hiigarans were unable to defend themselves. Seeking revenge, the Taiidan attacked without mercy, visiting upon the Hiigarans the same crime that the Hiigarans had visited on the Taiidan, though on a scale that far and away surpassed the Hiigarans' own."

"Eventually, the council intervened again, this time to negotiate peace between the Hiigarans and Riesstiu. Riesstiu's terms were simple; slavery or death. The Hiigarans, too proud to accept slavery, prepared themselves, but this fate was ultimately rendered void thanks to the actions of the Bentusi. A second set of terms were established; death, or exile. The Hiigarans were given one month to board transports, and all those left behind were to be either enslaved, or executed. The Taiidan added another clause; that the Hiigarans would never develop a Hyperspace Core as capable as the one that allowed them to strike at the heart of the Taiidan, or the Hiigarans would be destroyed completely by the Taiidan. Hiigara itself was claimed by the Taiidan, to be their new throneworld."

I could see the realization on their faces.

"A convoy of these transport vessels were launched, all of them drifting to the edge of the galaxy." I showed the picture of a Khar-Toba class vessel, and there were a few gasps throughout the audience as they recognized it. "Some left the convoy for other worlds. Others were left drifting as their technology failed. Some, however, made it to their destination, this world, and the Hiigarans were eventually reborn as the Kushan."

The hologram changed again, and I showed the Mothership. "You are aware of enough about the intermediate history that I will not waste our time explaining it. I will instead move on to the Mothership." The image changed again, showing the Hyperspace Core. "This is why your world was attacked by the Taiidan. You developed Hyperspace technology, and, seeing this is a breach of the terms you agreed to and have since forgotten, the Taiidan Emperor sent this fleet to destroy you."

I shut down the hologram.

"Do you have any further questions?"

126

There was silence throughout the Daiamid. I noted some of the many Kiith-Sa looking at each other, stunned, and more who were still staring at where my hologram had been.

Some, I could sense, wanted to deny my words. Others accepted it- because why else would they be attacked?

I waited patiently, checking up on the progress of the Embers I had sent off as the Daiamid composed themselves. They were fairly far out by now, far enough that I was going to start having them begin building up infrastructure in Phase Space. I'll give them a few hours...

Did they really need hours?

Okay, math time.

I had three Embers out there. They could construct a Lighter in 14.85 seconds, but that would complicate the math, and that would be terrible. Let's say that I make the Lighters more expensive by installing a Resource Core on them, which would neatly bring up their construction time to equal that of the Embers, which was 40~ seconds, and allow them to actually keep that pace because constructing Embers was a resource drain unlike calling them in from Exapol, something which I had sidestepped because the last time I had gone full Von Neumann like this, I had Maelstroms to support the resource drain.

I could also just cut out the middle man entirely and have the Embers construct Embers directly, but since I was already on a roll there, why bother?

Equal costs and built times would effectively synchronize the construction pace. Lighters construct Embers, Embers build a new set of Lighters that finishes in time to begin constructing the next wave of Embers at the same time as the rest of the Lighters.

With a starting amount of three Embers, I would have three Lighters after the first 40 seconds. The Embers would move off to construct more Lighters, and the Lighters would begin building Embers. In another 40 seconds, I would have three more Embers, and three more Lighters, for a total of six each.

After that, they would effectively double their numbers every 40 seconds. 6 becomes 12, then 24, then 48, and so on so forth.

After an hour... 3,713,820,117,856,140,000,000,000,000 of both. Double that if I skipped constructing the Lighters entirely. Assuming I stopped having the Embers construct Lighters after that hour, and then had them spend the next five minutes on Pyres... 327,055,771,669,267,000,000 Pyres, by the end.

That was... far more than I'd need.

Oh well. I could leave some in Phase Space to defend Kharak when there was another Attack, and I could take the rest to look for the Beast.

I shifted slightly when one of the Kiith-Sa spoke, hesitant at first. "This... treaty. You saved us despite it. Why?"

"I regard the destruction of your species an immoral action. The father does not pass on their sins to the son, and I do not hold you responsible for the actions of the Hiigaran Empire." I paused for a moment. "But, putting aside the immorality of this attack, there is another factor to be considered." I reactivated the hologram, showing a picture of the treaty- specifically the terms the Taiidan had forced upon the Hiigarans. "This attack was provoked by the development of Hyperspace technology on your Mothership. That is, however, not the terms of the treaty you signed. The Hiigarans were to be forbidden from developing a Hyperspace Drive of the same power as the one on their Flagship."

Once again, I showed a picture of the Mothership. "It does not forbid the development of Hyperspace technology, period. You have not broken your terms of agreement, because your Mothership's Hyperspace Drive does not possess those capabilities. As such, the Taiidan attack on your world is not only extremely immoral, but also illegal." I shut off the hologram again. "For this, and the attempted genocide of your species, I will attempt to make sure that the Taiidan face reparations for their actions."

Once again, I disabled the hologram.

After a few seconds, they realized I was done speaking, and the elderly woman from before spoke again. "Is there anything we can do to assist on this matter?"

Oh yes.

"If you would permit me, I would like to scan your Mothership's Hyperspace Core." Oh yes. "It would allow me to present greater proof to the Galactic Council that you haven't broken your terms, thus possibly allowing me to expedite matters."

Oh yes~

Give me an opportunity like that, and there's no fucking way I'm not going to take it. If I can get a scan of that Hyperspace Core...

"I cannot guarantee that, however." I continued, not letting even a sliver of my inner delight make it into my Avatar's voice. "Do you have any further questions?"

They did it. They actually did it.

A number of specially designed drones floated around inside the Mothership, extremely powerful and high-fidelity Protocrafters scanning the Hyperspace Core.

They actually let me scan it~

They'd even gone so far as to hand over all their research on the thing!

The grin on my Exapol Avatar could only be described as inhumanly wide.

Some part of me actually felt pretty bad about that -I was taking advantage of the Kushan's ignorance, here-, but it was vastly overwhelmed on the grounds of FUCK YES, THE SECOND HYPERSPACE CORE DESIGN IS MINE!

Really, a Far-Jump Core assuages a lot of bad feelings... Now I only had to get the designs of the other two.

I kept my drones moving at a fairly steady place as they scanned the Core, mapping it right down the quantum level. I had to admire the precision engineering in the Core itself, every atom placed with purpose, total and complete efficiency... The containment unit was less precise, but that was because it had been altered by the Kushan, and not forged by the HW-Progenitors.

My scan was punishingly complete. Everything, from the spins and positions of subatomic particles, to the elementary particles that made up those component particles. It was a scan more precise than even the ones I had taken of Anastasia's units, and it was generating significantly massive amounts of data; about 10^48.117342~ bits, all up.

Not actually a problem for either my data storage or my data processing abilities, but it occurs to me that it's more information than most planet-bound civilizations- most civilizations in general, actually, would ever generate or be able to process.

Bending thermodynamics over the table and ignoring Bekenstein and Bremermann for fun and profit~

Thanks to the number of drones I had, I completed the scan fairly quickly, though it still took a few minutes.

"Thank you. I have the scans that I require." I teleported my drones out, bring them into orbit of the Asura Commander. "I will contact the Galactic Council as soon as possible."

And the best bet for that would be...

The Bentusi.

127

Well, now that I have a free moment, it's high time I went over the tech that I captured and generously received.

Hyperspace, of course, was the most immediately obvious and interesting, and I pulled both Little1 and Anastasia from their arguments to investigate it with me.

I had both the Taiidan's, and the Kushan's versions of the technology. More importantly, I had the designs for one of the three Far-Jump Hyperspace Cores, which was basically a treasure trove as far as Hyperspace technology went.

Though neither the Taiidan or the Kushan understood how Hyperdrives truly worked, they understood enough about the basics that we were able to build upon their knowledge, and figure it out for ourselves.

Not... too surprising, considering that we had access to a very significant portion of the Seraphim knowledge base, as well as what was more or less the entirety of the Masari's knowledge, plus the insight into the workings of the universe that their abilities granted.

Hyperdrives actually shared a number of similarities with Masari and Hierarchy Phase Engines, though there was obviously a significant difference in their exact functions.

Whereas Phase Engines would generate a Quantum Field around the ship, and yank it out of existence into Phase Space, Hyperdrives... would basically do the same thing, except instead of a Quantum Field, it generated a Quantum Wavefront that would envelop the ship, and instead of pulling it completely out of existence, it would, through a quantum tunnelling effect similar to the Seraphim's Quantum Gateways, shift it to the 'edge' of reality.

At least, that's the best way to explain it without descending into technobabble bullshit that doesn't really mean anything in English.

The ultimate differences were fairly subtle, but important. Both devices shared a trait in that it was their respective 'Quantum's moving the ship instead of sublight drives, and another in that they didn't tap into other dimensions, per se- neither Hyperspace nor Phase Space were actually different dimensions. Hyperspace was the name given to the area inside a Quantum Wavefront, while Phase Space was used as a convenient way to identify the total non-existence of reality outside of universes that ships 'entered'. Both devices also shared a minor trait of 'the more energy you put into it, the better', though this was far less pronounced for Hyperspace than it was for Phase Space.

Both modes of travel had their benefits, and their detriments. Phase Engines, thanks to completely disconnecting from reality, were unaffected by things like gravity, inhibitors, or anything like that; but Phase travel had a maximum speed of around 2010 Light Years per day.

Hyperdrives could reach much faster velocities, but because they were still at least partially connected to reality, gravity and inhibitor fields could affect the Quantum Wavefront, deforming it and causing ships to be forced back into conventional reality. Hyperdrives were also safer, if the Quantum Wavefront was terminated, the ship transitioned back into reality fairly safely, while if a Phase Engine failed mid-transit, the ship simply ceased to exist, instantaneously and with no chance of recovery.

Phase transition was more or less instantaneous, while Hyperspace transitions required waiting for the Quantum Wavefront to transition the ship; a usually fairly lengthy process, though it was possible to speed up the pace at which it could occur.

With the technology we had, we would have been able to turn the Taiidan's Hyperspace Drives into something that far and away exceeded what they were capable of, but with the Second Hyperspace Core that the Kushan had unknowingly allowed me to scan...

Above all else, it was the speed one could reach with Hyperspace travel that hooked me. Phase Travel was all well and good, but the prospect of going from 2010 Lightyears a day to hundreds of thousands...

Little1, Anastasia and I descended on the designs of the Second Hyperspace Core with a vengeance.

We ripped it apart, studied every piece, every component. We replaced everything we could with something better, utilizing the totality of our knowledge, PA-Progenitor, Seraphim, Masari, hell, even the Scrin's. The Quantum Wavefront generator, we enhanced with the Quantum Field technology of the Masari, bolstered further with the extremely advanced knowledge of the Seraphim. Energy inefficient designs were replaced with our equivalents, able to handle even larger amounts of energy with even higher efficiencies. The technology that allowed the manipulation of the Quantum Wavefront was altered, made faster, bigger, better, more resistant to the effects of gravity. Bi-dimensional sensors were repurposed, allowing the ship to see out of Hyperspace so that it didn't need to exit. That also effectively removed the necessity of linear Hyperspace jumps, because the ship could now navigate without having to exit in order to find their position.

We improved it in every way- and then we altered it even further. We didn't have an Inhibitor on hand, so we couldn't quite test the design against that.

Something to fix later.

We took the technology to the absolute, uttermost limits we could currently achieve- and then we checked to see what else we could combine it with.

Hyperspace technology proved a... rather suitable middle ground for many of our previously incompatible technologies.

I went after merging the Hyperdrives with Phase Engines, while Little1 investigated merging Hyperspace technology with Seraphim Quantum Gateways, and Anastasia pursued merging it with Teleporters and Wormholes.

All three of us succeed to various extents. My attempt to merge Hyperdrives and Phase Engines went well, the two technologies being similar enough that I didn't have much trouble making a single device with the capabilities of both, allowing the ship to easily jump between real space, Hyperspace, or Phase Space easily, and more importantly; quickly. I intended to use Hyperspace when I needed utmost speed, and Phase Space when I needed to move about unhindered. I was fairly satisfied with the result, and I named it the Hyperphase Engine- pending renaming when I think of something better.

Little1 was met with a bit of difficulty, but he was, in the end, capable of making it work; refining the Seraphim's Quantum Gateways with the Hyperspace technology we gained, allowing far less energy intensive travel for the same distances.

Anastasia's self-imposed task was quite possibly the most difficult of the three, but she made it work. She merged the technology of the Helios Titan, which allowed one to project the area that units are teleported to, with that of Scrin Wormhole generators, and Hyperspace tech. The resulting tech allowed the generation of paired freestanding Quantum Wavefronts, relatively short range -about 9000 Kilometers, compared to the Wormhole's 8000-, and also fairly short-lived unless they were actively maintained. She called it the Hyperspace Portal Generator, because evidently not one of us was all that good at making names for new technologies.

It was such a massive boost to our capabilities that we had to revisit... basically all of our space units. We ripped out old Phase Engines, and replaced them with the newer and much better Hyperphase Engines, though we had to alter the scale of the Phase Engines fairly massively. Each of the Hyperspace Cores were equipped on Hyperdrives that were multiple kilometers large- yet, even our largest space unit was a mere three kilometers. In scaling down, we lost a lot of speed, but scaled up and down appropriately. Every other technology, we installed alongside their original counterparts, just so we didn't default absolutely everything to Hyperspace technologies.

The rest of the information we retrieved from the Taiidan barely received a glance. We took a look, and finding that we already had better designs for most equivalents, or technology that effectively invalidated the use of such designs, promptly archived it for later use.

It took me a great deal of restraint not to go gallivanting off with my new, extremely fast ships. I held off on the notion that Phase travel was a great deal more stealthy than Hyperspace travel, which could be detected from light years away. With the amount of ships I had, jumping into Hyperspace might very well cause all those sensors to explode- an exaggeration, obviously, but that many ships would definitely bring far too much attention to this little sector of space, and I really didn't want that.

I did, however, send exactly one Pyre off into Hyperspace, heading towards a single solar system that, aside from the existence of a single ship, was otherwise unremarkable. A previous Pyre had already noted its presence- it was quite close to Kharak, after all.

That Pyre wasn't meant to hide. I quite hoped it would attract the attention of another ship, which I hadn't yet found.

I really did hope the Bentusi Exchange ship was in the area.

128

My Pyre emerged from Hyperspace with a suddenness that was unlike most traditional Hyperspace transitions. Though a Quantum Wavefront had indeed appeared -not totally necessary-, it had skipped the formation and expansion stage entirely. There was no point of light that expanded into a line, and then further into a rectangular window- one moment, there was nothing, and the next; the window appeared out of nowhere, rushed backwards, deposited the entire two and a half kilometre vessel in less than a second, and then vanished with the same suddenness that it had appeared with.

Eight thousand kilometres away was a ship that I had come to despise quite a bit when I played the Homeworld Campaign.

The Ghost Ship.

My sensors could detect the slight warping of gravity around the ship, caused by the subversion field built into its hull. I was confident that my Pyre could resist being controlled, but why bother taking the risk?

Eight thousand kilometres was only a bare tenth of the effective range on the Pyre's Protocrafter. It was also far and away outside of the subversion field's range.

I'd know whether or not the subversion field could take over my Pyre when I ripped its schematics from the Ghost Ship it was built into.

Evidently... not.

Interesting tech, to be sure. Basically, it was somewhat similar to a Protocrafter -if you squinted really hard-, though less powerful in... pretty much every way. The Ghost Ship would scan incoming vessels, and, once they got in range of the subversion field, begin attempting to subvert it by messing with the computer systems, sending signals that overrode inputs, and just generally attempting to seize control of the on-board systems.

Its scanners were fairly powerful. My stealth was better still, and it would have failed to take over my Pyre simply because it would be unable to actually look at the inner systems of the ship. Even if it hadn't, I still would have been able to stop it- because things like sudden signals out of nowhere didn't work when I had total control of all the systems involved. I'd have noticed, and subsequently been able to prevent it.

But aside from that system... There wasn't too much of interest. The ship was fairly old, and its databanks hadn't been perfect. It was younger than the Progenitors, sure, but its technology wasn't perfect, and the state of the ship... didn't help.

My sensors pinged, and I hummed.

Seems like they were in the area.

A golden Quantum Wavefront opened quietly, sweeping forwards. The Bentusi Exchange vessel appeared quickly, the transition taking about three seconds.

Ah... how long it had been since I had seen that vessel... It was even better in the flesh, so to speak. The low quality version in Homeworld had been nothing like this.

It was a lot bigger than my Pyre, too, positively massive in comparison, but I didn't care too much about that.

I disabled the Protocrafter, and spun my Pyre around, shifting the fore of it in the direction of the tradeship.

"Greetings, Bentusi." I broadcasted.

There was a moment of silence as the Exchange vessel finished turning, presenting its inner portion. Lots of lights, I noted. "You know us, but we have never heard your song sung through the void. We do not know you."

"I would be surprised if you did, Bentusi. I have never made my presence known prior to this day." True- but misleading. "I am Drich, a wanderer, explorer. You are the Bentusi, the Unbound, the first in the First Time." I let the silence hang for a moment. "I would trade with you, Bentusi."

I could sense their curiosity. Quite literally- being psychic was awesome.

"Information, for a request." I continued. "I ask for your help in contacting the Galactic Council, in order to bring to their attention the Taiidan attack on the Hiigaran descendants, known now as the Kushan. In return, I will supply you with the data that I have lifted from this derelict ship."

"If we are to accept, we must know more of this attack." The Bentusi spoke shortly.

"I will provide you the context. Watch, and know my reasoning." I spent a moment compiling data, before broadcasting it to the Bentusi.

Basically, recordings of the attack, gained from the ships of the Taiidan, some of the Mothership's records about the Turanic Raiders, proof that the order was given by the Taiidan Emperor, the attempted deployment of thirty two Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons, twenty two of which I still had, all currently on board this very Pyre, and finally the terms that had been agreed upon, alongside the note that it hadn't been broken- the attack thus illegal.

It took the Bentusi about ten seconds to respond. Fairly good, considering it was a significant amount of data. "This is a concerning matter. We will assist."

Good 'ol Bentusi. I could tell they were angry about what I had shown them, yet that wasn't reflected in their voice. "Thank you, Bentusi." A moment later, I transmitted the data I had promised them.

It hadn't escaped my attention that they hadn't explicitly accepted the deal. Frankly, I didn't care. The data was of no use to me, and there wasn't much of it anyway.

In return, the Bentusi transmitted several sets of coordinates to me. A quick analysis of them showed that they followed a path through the stars, each one about 250 light years apart. "Please, follow us. We shall introduce you to the Council."

The golden Quantum Wavefront appeared again, quickly consuming the tradeship.

Follow... Hah. That ship was not the fastest out of the pair of us.

My own Quantum Wavefront quickly consumed my Pyre, and I shot forwards, past the Bentusi ship still in Hyperspace, directly to the first set of coordinates. My ship was there in minutes -2.246486 minutes-, but the Bentusi ship was still on the way.

I settled in to wait for them, turning my attention to the rest of my ships.

This Pyre had moved further in the last few minutes than the others had moved in the last few hours, a testament to the sheer speed of the Hyperphase Engine. I had a very small portion of the galaxy mapped out, mostly because my excess ships were sweeping around the edge of it looking for the Naggarok and the Naggarok's emergency beacon.

Once I found either... Well, call in support, then go at with everything I had.

Quite some time later, I watched as the Bentusi Exchange ship appeared out of Hyperspace in front of my own Pyre. I could sense their surprise- that my ship was faster than theirs.

It was fair, after all, it was the Bentusi who had the best Short-Jump cores in the galaxy, courtesy of the all the study they've done.

"Perhaps this time, you might soar alongside me, Bentusi, if only as a matter of expediency." Your ship is slow, I left unsaid.

That would be rude, after all.

129

One moment, space was empty. The next, a pair of blue Quantum Wavefronts appeared out of nowhere, flashing as they deposited a pair of ships.

They had barely even vanished before two more appeared from another direction, consuming both.

One of the abilities of the HW-Progenitor Hyperspace Cores had been the ability to drag other ships into Hyperspace thanks to the powerful quantum wakes they produced. It was an ability that my own Hyperphase Engines had maintained, and one that I was abusing to full effect, dragging the Bentusi Exchange ship alongside my own as we jumped from coordinates to coordinates.

Sure, it was slowing down travel some, but we'd moved halfway across the galaxy already, and it had barely been half an hour.

We were, in fact, approaching the second last set of coordinates now.

Slightly over four minutes later, we arrived. I didn't immediately take us off to the last, as the Bentusi spoke.

"We are certain, now. You possess a Hyperspace Core like our own."

"I do not." I denied. "None of the Three Hyperspace Cores lay with me. My technology is simply advanced enough to not need them." My Pyre turned to the Bentusi ship again. "Now, we have nearly arrived. I will bow to your experience here, Bentusi; what is it that I should do?"

With another supremely quick transition, both of our ships appeared at the Bentusi's coordinates.

Somewhat close, an unremarkable planet. Much further away, a burning yellow star.

Above that unremarkable planet, however, was a large space station, surrounded by many ships of many designs. It was mostly cylindrical, and it spun slowly in place, even as radio chatter directed the many surrounding ships around it. There was a sudden downtick of chatter as the Bentusi began broadcasting.

"Greetings. We would speak with the Galactic Council about an urgent matter."

When the Bentusi spoke, the galaxy listened.

It was a mere hour later that the Galactic Council convened, all ambassadors from the many groups present gathered, prepared, and then practically falling over themselves as they rushed to find out what the Bentusi wanted.

My presence warranted curiosity, but as I had arrived alongside the Bentusi, everybody left me alone.

The speed at which the Council had moved was rather unlike them. Nevertheless, they had gathered; launching a number of ships, one for every polity that made up the Galactic Council.

If they had been speaking to each other, this would not have been done- but they were speaking to the Bentusi. The Bentusi were one with their ships, leaving them to talk with what they called the Bound races... simply wasn't going to happen.

"With the gathering of the Council's representatives, this meeting of Galactic Council has begun." A woman's voice was broadcasted from the 'lead' ship- the one closest to the Bentusi. She sounded tired, I couldn't help but notice. "Bentusi, you have called this meeting. What is this 'urgent matter' of which you speak?"

"We wish to bring attention to an injustice performed by the Taiidan." The Bentusi cut straight to the point.

And what a point it was- merely saying those words had promptly obliterated any sense of tiredness in the ambassador, and stirred up no small amount of worry throughout the system.

"An attack was recently ordered on the descendants of the Hiigarans, once sent into exile." The Bentusi continued, heedless. "The attack saw the deployment of thirty two outlawed Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons. If not for the interference of a third party, all life on the world would have been destroyed."

There was silence from the ambassadors.

"I'm... sure you have evidence?" One of them eventually asked, his voice deep, and sounding like he did nothing but gargle marbles all day.

I took that as my cue, activating a Hyperspace Gateway. A flash of light heralded the appearance of an open container, in which all twenty two recovered ADWs were plainly visible.

The Bentusi spoke for me. "Ten were destroyed, but the remaining twenty two Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons were captured. We present them as evidence. None of these weapons have been altered; their warheads are still active and ready for detonation." Complete, and total, silence. "Recordings of the attack from both the Taiidan and Hiigarans' descendants' vessels are also available."

A lengthier pause, this time, before the Bentusi continued. "We believe this attack to be provoked by the recent redevelopment of Hyperspace technology by the Hiigarans' descendants. If you are familiar with history, you will recall the Hiigaran Exile Treaty, of which term 17C permitted the Taiidan to attack the Hiigarans if they ever developed Far-Jump Hyperdrives again. The Hiigarans' descendants have not redeveloped that capability; their Hyperdrive is strictly only Short-Jump capable. The Taiidan's attack was therefore illegal."

It took quite a bit of time for the members of the Galactic Council to respond, and I really had to admire the Bentusi's ability to completely render the heads of what was one of the most powerful groups in the galaxy completely silent.

It was nothing short of inspiring.

"We... will need time to consider, honoured Bentusi." A third voice came. "Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention."

"We are patient." The Bentusi stated. "We will provide you the data we have gathered. It is available for your perusal."

And that was the end of our part in the matter, for now.

I frowned.

They're not.

"We hear the Taiidan move." The Bentusi spoke quickly.

They are.

Their Hyperspace signatures were obvious to me, my many ships picking up on them immediately. Hyperspace really wasn't a stealthy mode of travel for any who knew how to look.

"I see them." I responded. "Their fleet is larger than the last." I couldn't help but note.

The radio chatter around us grew as the others in the system reacted to our words.

"We must proceed with all haste-"

"Do not worry." I interrupted. "I am still present in the Kushan's solar system. I had hoped I wouldn't need to intervene a second time, but the Taiidan force my hand." I sighed. "It is regrettable, but I will halt the conflict."

130

It would be a fair amount of time before the Taiidan got there, but not too long. There were a rather significant number of fleets in the general vicinity of Kharak, after all.

There had to be. The Taiidan had been able to send in a fleet to burn Kharak in less time than it had taken for the Mothership to jump out to the edge of the system and back. Sure, they had been delayed by Turanic Raiders, but still...

Anyway, I'd give them another half hour at their current velocities.

Half an hour was enough time for me to build enough Pyres to outnumber every single celestial body in this entire galaxy, but I already had enough Pyres in the area to not be worried about it.

Even a single one would be more than enough for me to not worry about it.

"They are nearly there." I spoke up again. "Watch, Bentusi. See as I see."

I began streaming data to the Bentusi, the feed from my various sensors on the ship. I cut out the feeds of some of the more exotic stuff, and dropped the fidelity quite a bit- though that still left sensors that were better than anything the Taiidan had access to.

My second Pyre jumped in mere moments before the Taiidan fleet did, transitioning in but a moment. I noted the Quantum Wavefronts of the Taiidan ships, and the small amount of Kushan ships in the system reacting to our sudden presence.

The Mothership, I noted, was currently docked with the Scaffold. The Kushan were in the process of refitting it, equipping it hastily.

The Taiidan finished transitioning, and I looked at them, too.

There was quite a number of ships. Three Carriers, four Destroyers, two dozen Assault Frigates, a similar amount of Ion Cannon Frigates, and six Missile Destroyers. The Carriers were releasing scores of Strike Craft and Corvettes, rounding out the fleet.

They were broadcasting, I noticed. Constant streams of data that weren't hard for me to break into. Mostly sensor readings.

"Once before I have intervened in the fate of this cradle." I broadcasted. "Now I appear again. You come with the intention to burn this world, but I cannot allow this. I will give you this opportunity to leave, but if you choose to fight, I will be forced to act."

"The Emperor orders this world destroyed, and the Emperor's word is absolute." I shortly received. "You can either get your ship out of the way, or we will destroy you with it." Their fleet began moving forwards, Strike Craft darting across the expanse of space.

"I see. This decision is most unfortunate." I sighed.

I had hoped... Oh well.

The Pyre's Protocrafter activated alongside the Hyperphase Engine. I jumped across space, appearing above the Taiidan's Strike Craft instants later.

My Protocrafter struck quickly. I disabled the Strike Craft in swathes, halting their inertia and cutting of all their systems, save for the Life Support. Another short-jump, and I did the same to the Corvettes, leaving them behind as I moved on to the Capital Ships behind them.

They didn't last any longer than the previous ships, and I had them disabled and drifting in space just like I did the rest of the fleet in moments.

Now, let's see... Inventory...

Sixty four Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons.

I was fairly certain that totalled more ADWs being deployed on this one planet than had been deployed in the last thousand years by the Taiidan.

I was also fairly certain that having that many broke at least one galactic law.

"I do not enjoy needing to act." I spoke to the Bentusi, simultaneously cutting off the data stream I was sending them. "But if my hand is forced, I am more than capable of it."

"You are like us." The Bentusi stated. "In more ways than one. You are Unbound, are you not?"

"From a certain point of view." I conceded. "But at the same time, not in the way that you are."

I sighed. Better to end that conversation there while we still had more important things to talk about. "Regardless, the Kushan are safe again. Twice now I have intervened. I would appreciate not needing to do so a third time."

I fell silent.

Now, to deal with those ships...

I guess I could release them into Kushan custody like I did the previous ones... Let their crews join all the others in the Kushan's prisons, hand over the ships for the Kushan to study...

Yeah, that works...

Though I'd be taking the ADWs, and the missile ships they were on. A combination of this attack, and the fact that all sixty four ADWs were present, should provoke the Galactic Council to make a decision quicker.

I hoped, anyway.

A day.

It took a day for the Galactic Council to come to a decision.

They were fairly efficient, I had to admit. These were a group of people who controlled the vast majority of the galaxy- and here they were, getting shit done in a mere day.

Whether the exceptional speed was because of the Bentusi's presence, or because of the fact that I jumped the rest of the ADWs over to help, I didn't know.

Didn't matter too much, anyway. The important thing was that the Taiidan Empire would shortly be faced with some rather pointed questions, such as 'Why did you have eighty six Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons ready for use?', 'You do realise that these weapons are banned, yes?', 'You also realise that this attack was illegal, right?', and most importantly; 'Do you have any idea how many laws have been broken?'

Chances were that a lot of sanctions would be levied the Taiidan Empire's way. Well, that or Riesstiu would do something stupid, and manage to get the Empire fucked up thanks to his actions...

Well, whatever the case, the point was that the Taiidan would shortly be too bogged down by bureaucracy to hit Kharak.

With any luck, I could get the Hiigaran Exile Treaty looked at- the Taiidan had broken it, after all, and that had nearly, unjustly, led to the deaths of an entire planetary population.

That was reason enough for the Galactic Council to investigate it.


	14. Chapter 14: Logs 131-140

( ** _the Link for The original thread is here_** )

131

Personally, I didn't really care for politics. I played my part, and then I stepped off the Galactic Stage, though I did keep a general eye on things.

Over the days that followed, the Galactic Council launched an inquiry into the Taiidan's actions- one that the Taiidan was ill-prepared for. The Taiidan were focused mainly on internal threats, and Riesstiu had been obsessed with taking and keeping power- which mattered precisely nothing when it came to the Galactic Council.

Critically, this meant that Riesstiu had to divert his attention from the rebellion stirring in the shadows, an opportunity that was quickly taken, as the rebellion shuffled around and hid themselves better, skittering under the noses of the Empire.

Worse, the sudden investigation had been a matter that couldn't be hidden from the general populace. It was too widespread, too public, for that. The effect was rather similar to the actual events of Homeworld, though with a few key differences.

Whereas the general reaction to the near destruction of Kharak was about the same as the actual destruction had been in canon -solidifying views that the Emperor was a monster, the Empire itself was pretty corrupt-, there was a change in that fact that the Empire had failed.

And had then hid that failure, sent off a bigger and better fleet- which also failed.

The stirrings that caused had almost provoked an open rebellion, but not quite.

How weak was the Taiidan Empire if they couldn't even destroy a single primitive planet?

An unfair assessment, but one born reasonably. I was hideously, hilariously overpowered, but I was also an almost complete unknown, and I had been underestimated rather significantly because of that. If I, an almost completely unknown third party, could stop two entire fleets, the assumption defaulted not to me being stupidly powerful, but to the Taiidan being weak.

If it had been the Bentusi, or another such group who were overwhelmingly powerful and which everybody knew where overwhelmingly powerful, it wouldn't have stirred up so much- but the bias of people worked in my favour, in this case.

A rebellion born out of 'The Taiidan Empire is corrupt, and weak' was going to be much larger than a rebellion born out of just 'The Taiidan Empire is corrupt'. If nothing else, some of the less loyal members would be swayed if they thought they could get away with it, and the Taiidan Empire being thought of as weak was going to increase the number who thought so.

Who knows, if the number of deserters were large enough, they might actually get away with it.

But, that hadn't happened yet. The rebellion wouldn't go into full swing without a catalyst.

In the meantime, the Empire had to deal with the attentions of the Galactic Council.

Which, rather conveniently, left me free to move about in the background.

I had shown exactly two Pyres to the galaxy at large. Both were currently darting around the edge of the galaxy, moving far faster than the rest of my Pyres hidden in Phase Space.

The difference in speed between the two was rather extreme. The pair travelling through Hyperspace were moving over 73 times faster -73.64459559- than the ones moving travelling through Phase Space. They had moved fast enough that I had sent the other two Pyres travel around the edge of the galaxy, building up fleets as they passed, which would eventually start searching inwards, to ultimately meet the rest in the middle.

Not exactly in the middle, obviously, but it was close enough.

It took a mere two days to travel the edge of the galaxy, leaving small fleets in my wake. It was because of that little searching habit that I found one of my targets fairly quickly.

The one that was, incidentally, the target that I was most interested in finding.

I detected it while my Pyre was travelling through Hyperspace. My sensors read it as a massive chunk of metal, intermixed with organic components. That alone would have had me suspicious- but what really hammered it home was the mind.

I've been getting more use out of my psychic powers these few days than I have in the past few years. This, it seemed would be no exception.

It was an expansive, complex thing. Highly intelligent- and also hungry.

The mere feel of its mind echoed with its hunger, the desire to consume and consume and consume and consume.

I confirmed it by dropping into real space for a moment, my stealth systems going full bore. The shape was familiar, and the reddish tint to the infected hull was more than enough of an indicator as to what it actually was.

The Beast.

And the ship it had arrived in, the Naggarok.

Found you~

I routed hundreds of Pyres to this place, pulling them from their current courses. Five hundred, all up, all of which I began re-equipping, using their Protocrafters to build Masari Core Amplifiers into the structure of the Pyres themselves.

Traditionally, such a structure would be used to lay waste to entire planetary regions, but I had a different use in mind here. They could channel vast amounts of energy- psychic energies included.

I didn't need such a thing to use my psychic powers, but having them would up the scales of what I could pull quite a bit.

As one, my five hundred Pyres appeared around the Naggarok, each one a thousand kilometres away from its hull, all of them facing the derelict, but not dead, ship.

"Hello Beast~" I said, mock cheerfully. "I have come to make this the worst day of your long, terrible life."

I sensed confusion, and curiosity. Fear, too.

"See, you utterly disgust me at a primal level. You desire nothing more than to consume everything, and you warp anything you touch."

There was an ominous golden glow as I charged up baleful energies in the Core Amplifiers.

I let out a pleasant hum.

"Bite the pillow, I'm going in dry."

There were hundreds of flashes of light-

And I struck its mind with enough psychic power to shatter entire moons.

132

The Beast was at least partially psychic, yes, but not like me. It did not possess the width or breadth of my abilities, nor the experience I had, or anything that would have actually helped it against me.

I struck it along two fronts. My Pyres' Protocrafters activated, and hit it physically, scanning it, stealing data, interfering with neural webs; all the while I hit it mentally, attacking its very mind, its consciousness, its thoughts...

There was no gentleness, here. I was like a bull in a china shop, ramming deeper into its mind, and leaving a shattered, tattered, and broken psyche behind me. I went after its memories, every thought it had over the past million years, every bit of data it had gained, consumed from those it had infected, touched and warped into more itself, every communication it had listened in on while it drifted through space, trapped in the Naggarok. I ripped them out, analysed them, and moved on to the next.

I had no intention of leaving it alive. I did not attempt to soothe the pain I caused it, like I once had with the Seraphim so long ago.

Physically, it writhed. Its body, the Naggarok, twitched and twisted, shifting as the Beast itself thrashed, screeching and screaming in the voices of the Naggarok's crew, those it had consumed ages ago, until I stopped even that, using my Protocrafters to prevent the signals from running through its form, stopping the muscles from twitching, compressing and expanding. The Naggarok was a valuable study object, after all, losing it because the Beast was in too much pain would have been quite annoying.

Though, the Beast itself was a valuable study object. The information and data it had gathered was quite significant, after all.

"Had you been... anything else, I might not have violated your mind like this." I hummed. It didn't respond- couldn't- but if it had, I imagine it would have sounded something like incoherent screaming.

I dug in further, absorbing memories and information as I went. I saw... so many things. The crew of the Naggarok, disabling the ship even as the Beast infected them and corrupted it.

Their memories... they had been explorers, travelling on the Naggarok to seek out new life. They had been... a remnant of their race, one of the few starships and people that had survived a civil war that culminated in the losers detonating weapons of mass destruction upon their worlds. Most of their species had burned, but the Naggarok, and a few other vessels, had escaped that fate.

All had left. There were tens of thousands aboard each ship, a viable breeding population for their species. They had not stuck together, and each ship had gone out to find worlds that could support them.

What happened to the other ships was uncertain, but the Naggarok had encountered the Beast.

"You are horrifying." I told it. "You consume, absorb, infect, and leave nothing but more of yourself in your wake."

But where did the Beast itself come from?

I looked deeper.

The Beast... had entered the Naggarok while it was in Hyperspace. How? Hyperspace was transient, temporary. How did it get in?

I ripped its mind apart as I dug even deeper, and I did not put it back together again.

The Beast had been... launched? into Hyperspace, from... a ship? A station? Something that couldn't move, yet something that had been able to send a sample of the Beast into the Quantum Wavefront of the Naggarok.

Something infected by the Beast.

"There's more of you." I realized. "You are just a small part of the whole."

Fuck.

A station that had once belonged to... somebody else the Beast had consumed. This Beast didn't know- those were memories deemed unimportant for infecting the Naggarok.

Memories stripped out, because the small sample of the Beast hadn't been able to hold the information. Not enough mass to store the data.

But if this was only another sample...

"How much of the universe have you infected?" I asked.

It didn't know, of course.

Fuck.

"How long is it going to take me to purge you from existence?"

It seemed like I would be staying here a lot longer than I had initially intended.

Fuck.

Well, at the very least...

"You'll help me destroy your kind, Beast."

I pulled the last of its memories from its mind, right as my Protocrafters finished the quantum level scans of the Naggarok. All the information it had was mine now, the memories it had stolen, as was the designs and the technology of the Naggarok- most importantly, its Hyperdrive and sublight drives.

Engineers of the Naggarok had understood how both had worked, and subsequently, so did the Beast after it absorbed them. The cycle ended with me, and those memories were now mine...

Hyperdrive... It was exceedingly powerful. That it could achieve intergalactic travel was proof of that- and it did it without a HW-Progenitor Hyperspace Core.

But, not as powerful as my Hyperphase Engines... A shame. Another upgrade would have been nice.

The sublight drive, on the other hand; now that was interesting.

It was another variation on Hyperspace technology, though the actual use in this case was far different to any other. Effectively, it generated and sustained a Quantum Wavefront around itself, which appeared as a pulsating blue field covering the ship, and used that to 'slide' through normal space, moving without acceleration or inertia.

It was a drive system that allowed something the size of the Naggarok to manoeuvre like it was a fighter, fly around several times faster than one, and even stop instantaneously without even a hint of G-forces on demand.

It was quite a bit better than my own sublight propulsion methods, so I subsequently upgraded it however I could, and then installed it on my Pyres, adding it alongside the already existing systems. It'd take a bit of time for the modification to complete on my already existing ships, but that wasn't too much of a problem.

That, of course, left me with one thing to do.

The Beast, and the Naggarok.

I had shattered its mind, seized control of its body. I had a quantum level scan of its entire structure, and I could rebuild it if I so wished.

I didn't.

I wanted to destroy it, totally and completely. There were so many ways I could do that- and what did you know, I already had one ready to go.

I said it before, but I'll say it again.

Traditionally, the Masari used Core Amplifiers to lay waste to entire planetary regions, creating a storm of energy that could burn down entire countries.

I had five hundred of them, each and every single one of which attached to a Pyre, ready to harness the vast amount of energy they were outputting.

"Burn, Beast."

I unleashed them all.

133

It was like watching the birth of a miniature star.

Burning Light energy boomed, radiant and beautiful and oh so very dangerous. I trapped it, compressed it around the Naggarok, not allowing it to spread out like it should have- and it burned all the brighter for it. It was power enough to scorch a planet right down to the bedrock- and I was concentrating it on a single ship.

'Vaporised' was one way to describe the results, but a more accurate rendition would be 'disintegrated'. Vaporised held the implication that it was only turned into gas- but the Naggarok had been destroyed so completely that even its very molecules had been scattered and blasted apart. It was nothing less than stellar dust- and as I completed the next part of my plan, even that would be destroyed.

I projected a Quantum Field around the burning maelstrom of tightly contained energy- and then I flung it straight into Phase Space- bereft of a ship to maintain the field.

It collapsed, and utterly ceased to exist. Energy and matter alike, all was lost to the void of nothingness as the field failed. Nothing was left of the energies I'd used to destroy it, and even less of the Naggarok itself.

All that was left of the Beast in this galaxy was the Naggarok's emergency beacon.

I was going to do the exact same thing to it the moment I found the damn thing.

It's only been drifting through space for over a million years. How hard could it be to find?

Evidently, it takes the Galactic Council less time to come to a decision than it does for me to find this thing.

"The Galactic Council has chosen to investigate the Hiigaran Exile Treaty." The Bentusi seemed rather amused.

"They're not pleased with the Taiidan, are they?" I chuckled a bit. "I can't blame them."

Still...

"But why tell me this, Bentusi?" I asked.

"As the aggrieved party, the investigation of the Treaty requires the presence of the Hiigarans." They answered promptly. "The Galactic Council has scheduled this matter to be resolved in one standard month. They asked us to bring the Hiigaran's ambassadors to a neutral point. We agreed, and sought you out. You are familiar with them, and they are familiar with you."

"You want me to introduce you to them." I figured it quickly enough.

"It would make matters much easier for everybody involved."

"Fair enough." I agreed. "I will introduce you. Do you have anywhere to be, or should I take you to them now?"

"We have no obligations."

"Off we go, then."

I'll have another Pyre warn them while we're on our way.

It would take about four hours to get to Kharak, a testament to the actual distance between the two.

I only needed two in order to get the Daiamid up to speed on the current matters. I had volunteered one of my Pyres to serve as a transport for their ambassador, but they declined.

The Mothership, they said, had just about finished being refitted.

I wasn't entirely certain of the wisdom of bringing the Mothership on a diplomatic mission, but it was the only Hyperspace capable vessel they'd actually built, so...

Oh well.

It didn't matter too much to me. The Kushan were hardly seeking fights, here. If somebody started shit, it would probably be the Taiidan.

I really hoped they didn't try to start something. The result would be rather unfortunate.

For them.

Though at the same time, I almost wanted them to try. If not for the amount of innocents caught in the crossfire, it would have proved extremely amusing- for me, of course.

Oh well.

With the signature quick transition that marked my Hyperspace Jumps, both my Pyre and the Bentusi Exchange ship appeared in the Kharak system, a fairly respectable distance away from the Mothership, still docked to the Scaffold. Bits and pieces of the hull were floating around it, Salvage Corvettes shifting them into place.

A bunch of smaller ships were floating about here and there, mostly Corvettes, but there were a few Strike Craft floating around here and there.

Another Pyre hung in orbit, spinning softly, flashing with pulsating fractal patterns. There was no actual meaning to them; I had simply done it because it looked pretty.

"Greetings again." I broadcasted.

The Bentusi Exchange ship moved forwards slightly, and I shifted my Pyre out of the way. "We are the Bentusi, and welcome you among space-faring cultures: The Unbound."

I sensed curiosity from them.

The next words did not come over radio. No- these were words from the mind, words that went unheard by all but precisely two other beings in this system. "We had not expected to find another like us."

I let my amusement be known. "The Kushan are an intelligent lot. Karan S'jet, even more so." I chuckled. "They couldn't find a computer powerful enough, or an artificial intelligence trustworthy enough, to manage the subsystems of their Mothership. She, however, found a solution; integrating an organic being with the Mothership, becoming its living core."

"What... is this..?" Karan's voice whispered.

"You are like us." The Bentusi spoke. "You are Unbound, one with your vessel."

"She is still young." I continued. "She doesn't yet understand the full meaning of what she's done. In time, however."

"In time." The Bentusi agreed.

"Welcome to Kharak." A male voice spoke. It was the same guy who had been in temporary command of the Scaffold, quite some time ago. "We've been informed of what's happening already, thanks to Drich. Got to say, I think I speak for a whole lot of people when I say thank you for helping us out."

"You are quite welcome." The Bentusi held a pleasant tone. "Now then, we must speak about the events of the future..."

I hummed as the Bentusi continued speaking.

"I must congratulate you, actually." I spoke to Karan. The Bentusi heard it, but they didn't give any signs that they did. "You have achieved something that most species are still attempting." I chuckled again. "You really are quite the exceptional lot."

134

As the Bentusi said, I had a month to fuck around before the Galactic Council's investigation of the treaty happened.

A month was... more time than I'd actually need. This galaxy was only 35,000 light years in radius, and since I had started having my fleets explore from the rim inwards a fair bit of time ago... I'd only need around 13 days in order to check everything that was left.

Which should get me pretty much... Well, everything I'm after.

The Naggarok's emergency beacon, the Third Hyperspace Core, all that delicious Progenitor technology in the Karos Graveyard...

And, of course, right in the very center of the galaxy, hidden inside Balcora, the main prize;

Sajuuk itself.

Ah... The things I could do with the technology of that ship~

The things I could do with what it unlocked~

But, those were matters for later.

After I recovered the Third Hyperspace Core, after I scanned the rest of the Progenitor's remains, after my ships reached the center of the galaxy...

The rest of my fleets, travelling away from the galaxy, would take 18 more days to get far enough away that any Hyperspace Jumps would be undetectable. At that point, I could start going in full production, and build up the fleets I needed to search for the Beast. A lengthy venture, I'd admit.

Oh well.

It was nothing but time, now.

It took me about two days to find the Third Hyperspace Core. It had been located fairly close to the Vagyr Reaches, in an area that, according to the data I had lifted, was known as the Hethlim Ice Fields. The Vaygr Reaches itself was near the edge of the galaxy, comprising much of its 'eastern' rim.

The thing had actually been hidden fairly well. It was inside of an ice moon, buried a couple hundred kilometres under the surface. I detected it because the Core had been outputting energy, leaving a slight thermal bloom in the ice surrounding it. A quick scan by way of Protocrafter confirmed it, and like that, I'd found the last of the three greatest artefacts the galaxy had ever known.

I scanned it with the same thoroughness that I had scanned the Second Hyperspace Core, copying every last bit of technology. There was... not all much difference between this one and the Kushan's- aside from the containment unit, of course.

I didn't immediately remove it. I had no actual use for it, and a Pyre wasn't actually equipped to haul it around.

Granted, that last bit wasn't actually a problem, but I had another plan for it.

The Third Hyperspace Core was one hell of a bargaining chip, after all.

With a quick transition, one of my Pyres appeared in front of a Bentusi Exchange Ship.

"Bentusi." This conversation was private, for nobody but us to hear. "I would trade with you."

I sensed their curiosity at my words.

"In return for the opportunity to scan your Hyperspace Core," Amusement. "I would show you the location of the Third of the trinity." Amusement became shock.

It took them a few moments to respond. "We recall your claim that none of the Three Hyperspace Cores laid with you."

"None do." I agreed. "That is not to say, however, that I am not aware of their locations. You hold the First aboard Bentus; the Kushan hold the Second aboard their Mothership, though they are ignorant of that fact; but the Third is yet buried, still trapped in ice."

A little bit longer, this time.

I waited. I was patient.

"We must see this for ourselves. If you are telling the truth, then we shall allow you to scan our Core."

Excellent.

"You'll find it in the Hethlim Ice Fields." I transmitted some coordinates. "I will meet you there, Bentusi."

My Pyre promptly transitioned into Hyperspace.

It didn't take too long for a Bentusi Exchange ship to arrive, just a couple of hours.

I had three Pyres above the ice moon that the Third Hyperspace Core was buried in. All three had spent a fair amount of time excavating it, and a massive cavern of missing ice was the result; the Third Hyperspace Core itself pulled up into orbit.

There was an odd sort of anticipation about the Bentusi, which transformed into awe as they saw the Third Hyperspace Core.

It was a pretty massive thing, I'd admit; at a good kilometre wide, slightly more than half that tall, though relatively thin, my Pyres weren't all that much larger than it. It was in near pristine condition, despite the fact that it had been trapped so far underground for so long.

Underice?

Didn't matter, I suppose.

"You spoke the truth..." The Bentusi Exchange ship moved closer, their attention focused on the Third Hyperspace Core.

"What reason do I have to lie, Bentusi?" I asked, tinging my voice with curiosity.

"None, evidently. You could meet your unbelievable claim with unbelievable evidence..." Their attention wavered for a moment, before focusing on me again. "Bentus is coming."

Oh, of that, I was aware.

It was just this side of impossible to miss the Hyperspace signature of the Bentus. It was using the First Hyperspace Core, not the normal Hyperdrive of the Bentusi Exchange ships, and not the incredibly scaled-down Hyperphase Engines of my Pyres. It was incredibly fast, and subsequently that much more noticeable when it moved.

It was so fast that it would take only a mere three minutes for it to jump from the heart of Bentusi territory to the Hethlim ice fields. Three minutes, to cover a distance of roughly fifty thousand light years, on a vessel that was several dozen kilometres long.

Oh how I longed to use my Hyperphase Engines to their full potential, to not scale it down... Soon. So soon~

But not yet.

When my ships were far enough away from this galaxy to go completely undetected, then, and only then, could I could go all out.

I put those thoughts aside as a golden Quantum Wavefront stretched into existence, far wider than it was tall. It was massive, more than large enough to swallow both the Exchange ship, and my Pyre.

The transition was slow, purposeful. It moved carefully, and the structure of the Great Harbour Ship of Bentus phased into existence as the Hyperspace window shifted forwards.

A strange thing, but beautiful nonetheless. The games could not do the ship justice, no.

The Quantum Wavefront finished transitioning the ship, before shrinking out of existence, leaving only the Bentus itself.

"A pleasure, Bentusi." I let my appreciation of the ship be known. "Now then, let us speak about our deal."

135

Hmm.

The Second and Third Hyperspace Cores aren't all that different from the first, excepting only the containment units. It was easy to tell the difference between Kushan, Bentusi, and HW-Progenitor engineering, but the Bentusi's Core didn't differ all that much from the Third...

Because the Bentusi didn't need to, obviously. The Kushan had expanded the containment unit in order to account for their inferior technology, but the Bentusi were far more capable with such matters. Sure, theirs was slightly larger, but given the sheer size of the Bentus, coupled with the fact that they only had a single Core, I wasn't going to blame them for it.

Regardless, I've got the designs of all three Cores now.

"Thank you, Bentusi." I disengaged my Pyres' Protocrafters, pulling my ships away from the First Hyperspace Core, and the Bentus that housed it.

The Third was currently being dragged into the Bentus' internal bays, a number of smaller ships hovering around it.

"I have what I want."

"And we hold what you promised." The Bentusi responded. "We are curious about you."

"I am not surprised." After all the stuff I've done and, and all the stuff I've shown off? How could I be? "I am fully aware of how I must seem to you."

"You possess technology in excess of our own. You are Unbound. You knew the location of the Third Hyperspace Core. Despite these, we did not know of you until you revealed yourself to us. We have never before heard your song in the void." The Bentusi gave considering hum, entirely mental. "We do not often enjoy mysteries, but this one shall be entertaining to unravel."

Heh. Well, I hope they will enjoy themselves.

I'm certainly not going to make it easy on them.

"I will take my leave, Bentusi. You'll not hear me again until the council convenes."

The next few weeks passed slowly. True to my words, I hid all of my ships in Phase Space during this time, and thus passed unnoticed to the galaxy.

I found... a number of interesting things.

In the asteroid fields of Gehenna, the Oracle.

It wasn't... too hard to locate. I had a Pyre show up, start scanning, and not long afterwards, it stumbled upon the Oracle.

Which, thankfully, proved a rather significant font of knowledge. Its databases, while not all that thorough, still contained information on a wide variety of categories related to the HW-Progenitors. Its artificial intelligence... wasn't that intelligent. More of an expert system, really. A fairly good one, but one far below what the HW-Progenitors could actually do.

One thing I had been looking for, but wasn't able to find, was what happened to the HW-Progenitors. That information simply wasn't on it- in fact, any and all information relating to the HW-Progenitor's final fate had been erased, up to and including a significant portion of the historical data.

Rather annoying, because I really wanted to know what happened to them.

Scattered throughout the galaxy, hidden, was the Great Network of Hyperspace Gates.

Exactly none of which were unlocked. No, every single one that I found was cloaked and stealthed, usually out in the middle of nowhere to boot. Finding the first had been an accident, as my Pyre simply passed close enough to breach the stealth it was hiding under.

The ones after that, not so much, mostly because I scanned it, broke into its systems, then pulled the locations of the others from its databases.

Ten thousand years of galactic drift had left that rather inaccurate, but it did give me general locations to search, and from there...

Well, throw enough numbers at the problem, and the problem will go away eventually.

The gates themselves were fairly interesting, actually. Each one was equipped with Hyperspace generators, powerful enough to rival the Three Hyperspace Cores. Each one could send a ship tens of thousands of light years easily, in any direction, without the need for a receiving gate on the other end.

The gates were also mobile, but comparatively slow when it came to it.

A rather interesting design, actually.

Yoink.

In the Karos Graveyard, all the many, many, many wrecks that laid within, including the four pieces of the HW-Progenitor Mothership, and the Keepers that guarded them.

Also the utterly massive structures that littered the place, each one stretching thousands of kilometres. Each one was a construction of a vast scale, and there were dozens of them, all incomplete, shattered, or in several pieces.

What they were for, I didn't know. The Oracle's records contained no information on them, period. No references, no descriptions, nothing.

Which was just a little bit extremely irritating, to say the least.

I set them aside for the moment, and focused on the other prizes.

The Keepers, and the HW-Progenitor Mothership.

The Keepers, I didn't care too much for. AI warships, guarding the remains of the HW-Progenitor Mothership, currently inactive because they hadn't detected my Pyres' approach.

The pieces of the Mothership were the better prize, but that wasn't to say that I didn't stealthily scan the Keepers with Protocrafters set to very, very low-power. Slow and careful was the name of the game, there, and I subsequently managed to get what I wanted without awakening the Keepers.

Which was nice.

I had half a mind to nuke them out of existence, but... Well, the Bentusi's sacrifice hadn't actually happened here, so that could be done later.

Surprisingly close to the inner rim of the galaxy was the Naggarok's Emergency Beacon.

The Beast aboard that beacon was nothing like the one on the Naggarok. Less developed, less knowledgeable, which was entirely because of the fact that it hadn't been listening in on the communications of the galaxy for the last million years.

I pulled every bit of information I could, hit it with Core Amplifiers, and then I tossed the disintegrated remains into oblivion.

Utter, total, and complete obliteration was the only thing I was ever going to accept when it came to the Beast.

And, lastly, in the very center of the galaxy, locked away inside of Balcora;

Sajuuk.

136

Sajuuk.

A marvellous ship. Utterly massive, on roughly the same scale as the Great Harbour Ship of Bentus.

Slightly less long, but Sajuuk was a mostly solid mass, and lacked the missing center that the Bentusi favoured in their designs.

Most importantly, Sajuuk was unpowered, alone in the middle of Balcora, where the black hole clusters would more or less completely prevent Hyperspace travel within the surrounding five hundred light years.

Something which I could bypass, thanks to Phase Travel.

Can you say 'easy target'?

My Pyres approached it from every direction, each one moving closer.

Come here, you~

My Pyres' Protocrafters activated.

Gimme dat technology~

Phased Cannon Array.

Yoink.

Triple Hyperspace Core integration.

Yoink.

Armour composites.

Yoink.

Literally everything about it.

Yoink yoink yoink.

This ship- this ship~

It was a struggle to not break down into maniacal laughter. The Phased Cannon Array, a powerful and long-ranged weapon that far outclassed any Ion Cannon. The armour, lightweight, yet fairly strong- though still not as good as my best. The triple Hyperspace Core integration...

Suitably impressive. Incorporating all three together would provide Sajuuk with the ability to generate a Quantum Wavefront powerful and stable enough to jump straight out of Balcora, all on its own, while also increasing the speed at which it could move... A design system that I was shortly going to replicate, and include in a suitably large ship because why not?

I would, after all, need a new ship design to hunt down the Beast wherever it may be- if I wanted to complete that task any time soon, that is.

I should get started on that fairly soon...

Eh. I had a couple more days before the rest of my ships reached fifty thousand light years away from the galactic edge. More than enough time.

My Pyres pulled away from Sajuuk, leaving the ship alone for now.

I didn't bother trying to stop myself from humming a pleasant tune as my ships vanished into Phase Space again, leaving the Sajuuk behind.

Capture technology goals; achieved.

To hunt down the Beast, I'd need quite a lot of very fast ships. I had no idea how far or wide they had spread, but given it had been over a million years since just the Naggarok had been infected, they could have spread rather significantly far if the other instances of the Beast had any form of FTL whatsoever.

At the very least, whatever instance had launched the Naggarok Beast had some form of interfering with FTL, plainly evident simply because the Beast had infected the Naggarok in Hyperspace.

Best case scenario, all other instances of the Beast have already been wiped out. Worst case scenario, incidentally extremely unlikely, every last bit of matter in the universe aside from this galaxy is Beast bio-matter.

Extremely unlikely was a bit of an understatement, really.

Regardless, if an instance of the Beast had found a sufficiently advanced civilization, then there was actually a significant chance that it had expanded throughout the universe.

I wasn't going to leave anything to chance. I was going to scour the entire damn universe to wipe that little infection out.

Since I didn't want to stay here for the next few hundred thousand years, using Pyres to do the searching wasn't an option. At 160,250.64 light years per day, the Pyres were very fast- but I could achieve so much more than that.

The Great Harbour Ship of Bentus had already demonstrated that. Its jump took it fifty thousand light years in three minutes, which was a speed of 23,999,999.9 light years per day. It could travel only slightly under a million light years in a single hour, seriously.

In other words, 8,765,999,963 light years in a single year.

The speed at which the Bentus could travel was extremely impressive- but I didn't intend to stop there, no. I fully intended to go faster still.

Speed was not the only important factor, however. I was sending these ships to hunt down the Beast, and they thus needed the appropriate armaments in order to do so. They needed to have enough offensive and defensive power that they could withstand anything the Beast tried.

They needed to be able to manufacture smaller units, to hunt down the Beast if they attempted to flee. They'd need to be able to purge parts of the unit, just in case the Beast somehow managed to infect it. Not something I'd bet on- but not something I'd bet against, either.

They needed to be so many things- but that wasn't too much of a problem for me.

I started big.

And then I only went bigger.

The result was... rather interesting, actually.

I called it the Castle.

It was a hundred kilometres tall, and, at first glance, would look like a giant rectangular prism.

It was a pretty fair assessment, I had made it to look like that.

However, it only looked like that. In actually, it was composed of a number of different parts, which I divided into inner and outer portions.

The inner portion appeared as a dull grey octagonal prism, though it too was composed of multiple parts, in this case sixteen triangular prisms that formed the top and bottom halves of the inner portion. Each piece was a complicated unit, possessing Hyperphase Engines, large amounts of Resource Cores, Shield Generators, and of course, lots of internal factories.

The outer portion was composed of eight separate pieces, four for both halves of the inner portion. Much like the sixteen parts of the inner portion, these pieces were equipped with Hyperphase Engines, Resource Cores, Shield Generators, internal factories, and powerful armour, all to go along with the standard set of equipment that I installed.

Each and every single piece was fully capable of independent movement, construction, and defence. Together, they were only even better. With the technology I'd pulled from Sajuuk, I'd converted the Hyperspace Core synchronisation system to work with my Hyperphase Engines, which gave it both considerable speed and stability. I'd be able to take a Castle straight through the gravitational field of a black hole with no problem, just like Sajuuk.

Most other systems were fairly independent, and didn't benefit from anything other than having more numbers, but one thing that did benefit however, was a Masari energy manipulation system, which played directly into the Castle's offensive capabilities.

See, I went with something a bit different from my usual designs. Pure power wasn't just what I needed in this case- destroying the Beast was no problem, but I also wanted to recover the information it had absorbed, if only because I could then use that information to better destroy it.

For that, I had equipped the Castle with redesigned, and incredibly up-scaled Core Amplifiers, built in to each and every single piece. All of them served to channel vast amounts of my psychic energies, which was stored with the help of a number of containment units. Each of these containment units were, themselves, re-designed Core Amplifiers, numbering twelve in total. They'd float around in a ball arrangement, drawing in vast amounts of energy, and containing it in the center of the ball as an orb of Light, Dark, or pure psychic energies, depending on what I wanted at the time.

In both cases, however, the energy that the containment units channelled would be visible to the naked eye as a coloured orb -Light as burning white-gold, and Dark as pulsing black-purple- ten kilometres wide in the center of the ball the containment units formed.

That Core Amplifier system formed the dual-purpose interrogation and weapons system. I could use the immense psychic energy it channelled to forcibly invade the minds of any instance of the Beast, and, once I pulled all the information I wanted, I could then use it to utterly obliterate them.

Quite literally- that Core Amplifier could very easily enable me to throw around fuck-planets levels of firepower as a matter of course. Some ships might try to run, or dodge, but... Well, it was my psychic energies, and, stored as Masari Light/Dark or not, it was pretty easy for me to control. Making sure that whatever I fired hit the target wouldn't be a problem for me, simply because I'd be able to redirect the energies directly at them.

Nothing would escape.

137

The day for the investigation had finally come.

I hummed a cheerful tune that only Karan and the Bentusi heard as my Pyre appeared in real-space, a Bentusi Exchange ship and the Kushan Mothership appearing alongside me.

A number of Taiidan ships were in the area, alongside ships of every species represented on the Galactic Council. One of them looked like somebody had taken an asteroid and then built a ship into it, I couldn't help but note.

My humming trailed off as I sensed the tension hanging over the Taiidan ships. They were rather... anxious.

I frowned.

Please don't be attempting something. I'd rather this day go by without any idiocy that I'd have to deal with.

The Bentusi Exchange ship moved forwards a little. I hung back, content to watch the proceedings, while the Mothership did nothing.

"We have brought the Hiigarans' descendants, as requested." The Bentusi spoke.

"Thank you, honoured Bentusi." One of the ambassadors spoke.

"As all members of the Galactic Council have gathered and the aggrieved party is now present, this meeting of the Galactic Council has begun." That woman's voice again. "The topic at hand is the attack on the Hiigaran exile world, Kharak," She pronounced it a bit oddly, putting emphasis on the 'r'. "Perpetuated by the Taiidan Empire."

There was a slight pause, before she continued. "For future reference, this incident was brought to the Galactic Council's attention by the Bentusi. An investigation into the matter was subsequently launched by the members of this Council, which has unveiled a significant amount of information." Another slight pause. "Most damningly, this attack was illegal by all standards."

"Objection!" One of the Taiidan ships promptly began broadcasting. "The Hiigarans were clearly in violation of the Hiigaran Exile Treaty-"

"False." The Bentusi cut them off, all the while maintaining a pleasant tone. "Term 17C of the Hiigaran Exile Treaty permitted the Taiidan to attack the Hiigarans' descendants only in the case that they re-developed Far Jump capacity. The Hiigarans' descendants have not re-developed that capacity, and the Taiidan attack is thus considered unprovoked."

"Indeed." The Councilwoman spoke. "All evidence gathered during the investigation confirms this."

"Worse," Gargle-marbles guy began. "Is the fact that no less than two attacks were launched, both of which saw the attempted deployment of nearly a hundred forbidden Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons, which could have done irreparable damage to the planet, its inhabitants, and its biosphere."

"The majority has already come to a decision on this matter." This was a voice I hadn't heard before. It sounded rather weird, partially synthesized. "Thirteen to one. The treaty is to be revoked immediately, and the Taiidan Empire is to face sanctions for the attempted destruction of an entire inhabited world."

"You cannot do that-!"

"Cannot?!" A fourth, now, who sounded incredibly angry. "The Taiidan empire very nearly destroyed an entire species! You should be thankful that we haven't revoked your seat on the Council! This is a crime that goes beyond excessive, and it was perpetuated over an agreement several thousand years old!"

"Calm yourself minister!" The Councilwoman interrupted him, cutting off what I felt would be a long and impressive rant. "However, he is correct. This pointless treaty nearly resulted in the death of a people who are not guilty of the crimes of their ancestors."

"The Hiigarans' descendants are quite different from their forefathers." The Bentusi seemingly agreed. "Why, they even treat the Taiidan prisoners rather kindly, given their attempted crime."

Oh, that was smooth.

The Bentusi were good.

There was a pause from all parties. "Prisoners?" The Councilwoman asked.

The Mothership's captain quickly spoke up, his voice loud and clear. "The crews of the Taiidan vessels that attacked Kharak are currently in our custody." He seemed rather pleased. "There are 3063 currently in cryostasis aboard the Mothership. They constitute one half of the Taiidan crews that we recovered."

"They attacked your planet... and you didn't kill them." The Councilwoman sounded almost incredulous.

"Time can change all things." The Bentusi hummed. "The Hiigarans were no exception."

"We... will discuss this matter at a later point." There was another slight pause. "The topic at hand is the sanctions on the Taiidan..."

It took about four hours for the Galactic Council to outline the sanctions the Taiidan would be facing.

Long story short:

The Hiigaran Exile Treaty was to be rendered void. The Taiidan would be forced to help the Kushan rebuild what the Taiidan had destroyed, which included their entire missile defence network. The Taiidan would also be forced to provide significant quantities of resources for the Kushan. The Kushan would return the crews they held in custody, but the Taiidan ships would stay with the Kushan. Once the Taiidan had finished assisting with the rebuilding, and had given their resources over, a fifty light year wide exclusion zone was going to be put in place around Kharak, where the Taiidan would be forbidden to enter.

And that was just the start- only the portion that dealt with the Kushan.

The manufacturing and attempted use of the Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons was going to have the Galactic Council poke their heads into the matter; a further and deeper investigation to make sure the Taiidan didn't have any more weapons of mass destruction ready for use.

Since the order for their deployment had come directly from Emperor Riesstiu himself, the Emperor was going to be facing some pointed questions. Given that he was insane... Well, I wasn't entirely sure what would come from that.

Probably civil war, because the Galactic Council was going to be taking up a lot of his attention, and the Rebellion could very easily capitalize on that.

What would happen after that... I didn't know. Maybe the Rebellion would get crushed, maybe they'd manage to eke out a victory, maybe maybe maybe.

I suppose that it didn't matter too much for now.

It'd be a while before that kind of stuff came up.

In the meantime, I was scouring the universe for the Beast.

138

Okay, time to math like a boss. How long would it take me to search the universe for the Beast, and how many ships would I need to make it happen?

A Castle could travel 48.9978461 million light years a day, in comparison to the Bentus' 23.9999999 million. This was fast enough that, if one assumed that this universe was 92 billion light years wide, was finite, and that my Castle had started at the 'edge', it would take a mere 1877.6335 days to travel from one side to the other.

A little over five years to cross the entire fucking observable universe was pretty awesome, in my opinion.

That little bit of math ignored something rather important, however; namely that I wasn't starting from the 'edge'. The amount of time it would take me to send a unit to the 'edge' of the universe would therefore be less than that. The amount of time it would take to scour the entire observable universe for the Beast, however...

Probably not that much larger. If I let an Ember just replicate endlessly for... oh fuck it, five hours, I'd get... a doubling time of 40 seconds, five hours is 18000 seconds, divide the latter by the former to get 450, so 2^450 is...

Is...

Okay, fuck, that's a lot of zeroes. It was a number far too big to express in anything other than scientific notation: 2.90735E+135.

Damn my numbers are big, which was giving me a really nice feeling- getting sidetracked.

Assuming I started searching in a grid pattern, with... say, ten light years for every point on the XYZ axes, and calling the origin point (0,0,0), as well as assuming a cube rather than a sphere, then... I'd need 9.8 billion cubed... 9.41192E+29 ships to put one on every single point. Minus a few million, since I had already searched the Homeworld galaxy, and thus didn't need to check it out again.

Given the Metal cost of the Castle is 2,693,703,934,553,340 metal units, after having an Ember self-replicate for five hours... the build power of them all would be 2.18E+138, which meant I could construct 8.09E+122 Castles over the course of forty seconds. Only that long because they contained Resource Cores...

At some point, I'll pick up an even faster production method and go back to being limited by the amount of resources I have rather than being limited by my ability to use them.

But until then, ex-nihilo resource production combined with exponential growth was all kinds of fun.

I hummed cheerfully as one of my many, many, many Castles detected an object in normal space. I dropped it out of Hyperspace to check on it, running a quick scan. Many more Castles surpassed it as it did, but I shifted their destinations slightly to account for the slight lag.

Ship, derelict, bunch of skeletons on board, drifting through space... Beast? No. Records? Password protected -scan computer system, simulate it, use a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the computing power available to me to brute force it-, and not much on it. Some monitoring station that's been drifting for millions of years after Life Support failed. Neat.

But not what I was looking for.

The Castle vanished back into Hyperspace, skipping the formation of the Quantum Wavefront entirely. That particular Castle, once right at the forefront of the scouting wave, was now right at the back.

I imagine that if anybody was watching Hyperspace in this region, they might have been shitting bricks. Actually, scratch the might- they would have definitely been shitting bricks.

Seeing what might as well be a solid, ever growing sphere expanding through Hyperspace fast enough to cover entire galaxies in mere minutes, there weren't many things that wouldn't be.

Another object. Leave Hyperspace, Scan-

Beast.

My Castle pulsed blue as it expanded, the single massive rectangular prism promptly breaking apart into two dozen more. Containment units appeared with blue flashes of light as the Masari Matter-Energy matrix quickly rebuilt them, before shifting around each other. Burning Light energy gathered in the center of the ball, quickly expanding from a tiny point of light into a ten kilometre wide orb of energy.

The Beast... station, just sat there. I could easily sense that it wanted to devour, but it lacked any weapons.

I spared no more time than was strictly necessary. The burning core of Light energy began glowing more intensely- and I struck the Beast mentally with all the force I could bring to bear.

I tore through its mind, digging straight for its memories. It screeched, the endless hunger overwhelmed by the pain I was causing it, but I couldn't care less about that.

It... arrived at this station from an infected ship, which originated from... That galaxy over there. This station was carrying an experimental Hyperspace Gate-

You.

This is the source of the Naggarok's infection. The species who built this station... died out long before it arrived here. It used their biological remains as food, then expanded and took over the station. Memory banks? Mostly destroyed. Damn it.

Information, information... Copy designs- There we go, got everything I wanted.

I retreated from the Beast's mind, and didn't wait even a single second before I unleashed the Castle's Core Amplifier on it.

A blast of golden energy shot out from the core, screaming through space. I bent the energy, curving it towards the heart of the station, before releasing it.

A miniature star bloomed as the Light energy was suddenly no longer tightly contained. I trapped it before it could expand too far, stopping the energy from being wasted. The station was scorched, burned, disintegrated- and then I tossed the remains into oblivion, to make absolutely certain that the Beast was completely destroyed. Nothing of it survived.

Good.

The golden orb of energy faded away, and the Castle began to close again. The containment units seemed to disintegrate as they were reabsorbed by the Masari Matter-Energy matrixes, which completed only moments before the rest of the Castle closed again.

One down. Now, onto the next.

139

Electromagnetic signals. Intercept, decode; pre-Hyperspace space-faring civilization. Alter a Castle's orders to engage stealth systems, drop out of Hyperspace, begin scanning and indexing.

Scans completed in three minutes, twelve seconds. Active supervolcano present, will erupt in four hundred and eighty three years, causing extinction level event. Slight planetary matter alteration, delay eruption six thousand and ninety two years. Genetic codes, ecosystem, culture, knowledge base, all information archived. Nothing of worth. Data moved to deep storage in case planetary re-genesis is necessary.

I let out a sigh.

Even years after the encounter with the Hierarchy, I'm still indexing civilizations. It had long since stopped being necessary- none of these civilizations were in danger of being wiped out, and yet...

I just kept doing it. 1632 destroyed civilizations left their mark, it seemed. Too late to save any of them, and impossible to restore without the data that I gathered... Orlok had walked through the ashes of a thousand worlds, but me?

I'd built the tombs for them all. Empty caskets, because the Hierarchy left nothing but ash and destruction in their wake. Too many tombs, too many monuments, too many worlds that I couldn't repair.

Never again.

'Creator-Mother.'

"I'm fine, Little1."

'You're sad.'

"I'm just thinking of the past, Anastasia." I put on a smile. "Don't worry about me, you two just go back to having fun, okay?"

That I was scouring the universe for the Beast didn't mean that I wasn't still paying attention to what was going on in the Homeworld galaxy.

I was still keeping an eye on the Kushan, and most importantly the Taiidan ships that were close by. The Emperor, it would seem, had yielded to the Galactic Council's order to help the Kushan rebuild everything the Taiidan had destroyed. They were currently pumping out things, which the crew of the Scaffold checked over before sending down to Kharak.

I was running my own subtle scans on whatever they built, just to make sure they hadn't tried to hide anything dangerous to the Kushan on what they built. So far, they hadn't.

The Mothership itself was busy receiving all the resources that the Taiidan were still shipping in. I scanned those too, and so far it was just typical resources.

I didn't trust them not to try something. Emperor Riesstiu was crazy, after all. Even the fact that the first two assaults had failed wouldn't discourage him.

With rebellion stirring, he'd probably try something soon.

I hoped I was wrong, that he might have seen sense, but really?

I knew exactly how unlikely that was.

I frowned.

Three days in so far, and the Taiidan had been continuously producing components for the Kushan. The Kushan had relaxed a bit, but there was an air of anticipation about the Taiidan ships. Hidden in Phase Space, I ran another scan on their ships.

Everything... seemed normal-

No.

I sighed, shaking my head.

A number of components had been secreted away. The Taiidan were slowly assembling them together deep within the ship, where the Kushan's scanners couldn't penetrate.

The device?

An Atmospheric Deprivation Weapon.

My Avatar's hands came up to rub my temples.

Of fucking course you are.

"Bentusi." A Pyre appeared out of Hyperspace near the Great Harbour Ship of Bentus. "It seems a third intervention will become necessary."

I watched them closely, feeding the data my Pyre was gathering to the Bentusi. They were being fairly quick about constructing the ADW, but still...

Okay, if I'm going to hammer in the fact that no, attacking Kharak is not allowed, I'm going to do it with something that will express with total finality exactly how fucked the Taiidan would be if they decided to continue trying.

I was going to bring in a Castle. Maybe even three, just to really hammer that in.

I had all three ready to go soon enough, and it was only a short trip through Phase Space to get them near Kharak, ready to dip back into normal space at the drop of a hat. Or, the drop of a missile in this case.

"Do they think I am blind?" I asked. A small amount of the irritation I was feeling slipped into my mental voice.

"This course of action is a rather poor choice, we must agree." The Bentusi maintained their pleasant tone, but that fooled me exactly none.

"Twice they have tried to destroy this world." Oh, there's a little bit more. "Even when the Galactic Council has ordered them not to, the Emperor still attempts to destroy the Kushan. Worse, his fleets listen. They are utter fools, following an even greater fool."

The Bentusi gave an agreeing hum. "If they will not listen to even the Galactic Council, there will likely be a war."

"If the Taiidan do not enter a civil war of their own." I noted. "Still, three interventions is far too many. I will see Emperor Riesstiu punished for this."

"Will you kill him?" The Bentusi asked. "End his flicker-life?"

"Kill?" I responded. "Oh Bentusi, mere death is a punishment given by the unimaginative. I have something else in mind for him."

They constructed a total of three ADWs before they attempted to use them.

It was sudden, the ADWs launched with no warning at all. All three were set on a crash course for Kharak, even as the rest of the fleet promptly charged weapons.

That went exactly nowhere. My three Castles instantly transitioned back into normal space, one appearing between the Taiidan fleet and Kharak, another appearing between the Taiidan fleet and the Scaffold, and the last appearing next to the Mothership.

"Three. Times." My voice echoed through the minds of every single being in the entire system. "There will not be a fourth."

As one, my Castles engaged their many Hyperphase Engines. I used the Quantum Wake they generated in doing so to pull the entire Taiidan fleet into Hyperspace with me, dragging along every single one of their ships for the ride. The ADWs were also pulled along, and I captured them with one of the Castles.

Okay, three genocide attempts is more than enough. This ends here and now.

140

Hiigara was a little over 35000 light years away. It took slightly over a minute for my Castles to travel that distance, the Taiidan ships in tow.

There were a number of Hyperspace Inhibitors around Hiigara, which I utterly ignored beyond the minor drop in speed they caused as I redirected energy into stabilizing my Quantum Wavefront.

Not that it mattered. It took less than a second for the Castles to arrive at Hiigara itself, at which point I simply let the Quantum Wavefront break down as I transitioned back into normal space, all three of my Castles appearing in line, while the Taiidan fleet I had brought with me drifted forwards, all systems save for life support turned off. The Castles themselves expanded, the multitude of parts entering a new configuration.

The Emperor's flagship was present, as was the Taiidan royal guard. Seize control, turn off all systems except life support, leaving only the Emperor's flagship capable of doing anything.

"Three times, I have protected Kharak from the Taiidan fleet." Once again, my voice echoed in the minds of every being in this system. "Three times, you have ordered its destruction, Emperor Riesstiu."

The Bentus was coming in, I noticed.

The Emperor- Oh, he was insane. Rage filled his mind, but also shock, which was directed towards me. He's... preparing to attack.

Fool. Psychic powers like that are entirely too weak.

"You've taken a step too close to me-" He attacked with a lance of thought and hate.

I batted aside his mental strike with ease.

"Your mental might is insufficient." I tossed an attack back, exactly equal to what he had tried to hit me with. "You cannot harm me."

He shuddered as he tried to resist it, and I let up after a few moments.

"Now, I shall talk, and you shall listen." I spoke. "Three times, you have attempted to have Kharak destroyed. Three times, I have stepped in to prevent genocide. You defied even the Galactic Council with your latest attempt. I will not allow this to stand."

Let's see, scan... Massive genetic deterioration, currently alive only because of extensive cybernetics, and because of his personal life support chamber. Clone Doctrine really didn't work out well in this case. Brain... somewhat damaged. Traumatic remnants from information download.

Well, that's good. I could fix that.

"Brace yourself." I told him.

Then, I dived into his mind, digging through his thoughts and memories. I tried to be gentle, here, but shuffling through a being's mind like this could never really be gentle. His mind wasn't in all that good of a condition, a result of imperfect technology. Still, I could fix that, too.

I began repairing the genetic damage caused by the cloning process, and then the brain damage from the memory download. His mind, I began stitching back together, soothing psychic wounds and healing traumas. When I was done with him, he would be sane, and properly capable of understanding the next part of what I'd do to him.

Idly, I noticed the Bentus appear, transitioning quickly. For the moment, I ignored it, and the Bentusi themselves.

"You are a product of flawed technology, flawed methodologies. You are insane, and whoever decided you were fit to run an empire was obviously out of their mind."

Nearly done... I'll have to thank Altea again at some point.

"And now, you are leading a corrupt polity straight into destruction."

There we go. Genetic code fully repaired, brain damage undone, mind healed.

Now, for the second part.

"Perhaps if you understood the pain you cause, you wouldn't do as you do." How about Empathy? Let him feel the rage, the pain, the emotions of all those around him. Could he continue being so corrupt when he felt the results of his corruption firsthand?

Let's find out.

"You already have a measure of telepathy. Now, I will force you to hold empathy."

The Bentusi watched my work with curious eyes. It wasn't particularly difficult, just an alteration on the way that his telepathy worked, introducing the ability to sense emotions alongside thoughts, and making sure that it didn't fall under his control; to remain active at all times.

This was actually something the Masari would do to violent criminals. The criminals would be forced to feel the emotions of all those around them, as well as their pain. Typically, this would stop criminals from being violent- they would be extremely reluctant to harm others because they themselves would feel the pain they inflicted. Again, typically, most of them would rehabilitated, no longer a danger to Masari society.

I hoped the same would occur to Riesstiu. Since I had fixed his brain damage, and the damage to his mind, he should be much less insane. Coupled with forced empathy... he might actually get his shit together and start fixing things. If he didn't... well, too bad, then. Either he'd come out of this as an actually respectable living being, or he'd just lose it completely.

Either way, so long as Kharak was safe... I didn't care too much.

I sent him into a sleep, and pulled back from his mind.

Two of my Castles vanished into Hyperspace then and there, both of them heading in opposite directions. They shifted into Phase Space not long after, and became subsequently invisible to the galaxy at large.

The third pulsed blue as it closed, all of the pieces floating together and heading towards the Great Harbour Ship of Bentus.

"I do not like interfering, but I am fully capable of doing so." I repeated myself. "Hopefully, this time shall be the last time."

"We have never seen such a thing before." The Bentusi responded. "To change a being in such a way, that is. You used nothing but the power of your very own mind to alter matter and life. We are quite curious, now."

"You and many others, Bentusi." Kamal Re'x came to mind. "Still, it matters little at the moment."

A Quantum Wavefront appeared in front of my Castle- though it was my Castle that moved into it rather than the Quantum Wavefront that moved to my castle.

"We shall talk later, Bentusi."

After I see what becomes of the Emperor.


	15. Chapter 15: Logs 141-150

141

+++

It took less than a week for the Taiidan to descend into civil war.

The Emperor refused to talk to anybody, or leave his chamber. The Rebellion, sensing an opportunity, promptly went public, declaring Emperor Riesstiu a 'Heartless monster who needs to be put down for the good of the Taiidani people'.

A very significant portion of the fleet joined the Rebellion, cutting the Taiidan's power significantly. Riesstiu himself gave no response, and didn't even seem to notice his subordinates panicking, and the less loyal ones covertly switching sides, bringing with them information, more defectors, and resources for the Rebellion.

Around about the same time, the Kushan finished refitting most of the Taiidan ships they'd been given, crewing them with their own people. The Mothership, also refitted and ready to explore the galaxy, was promptly launched.

I'd showed up and told them about the Rebellion going on, but that didn't seem to discourage the Kushan. They wanted to see their homeworld, and nothing so simple as an interstellar war was going to stop them.

I... hadn't bothered to argue with them. I'd told them I thought it to be a remarkably bad idea, said that it would get them involved in the Taiidan rebellion, noted that they were probably already considered as being at war given the Taiidan Emperor's actions, and warned them that I would no longer defend their planet for them if they were going to get involved.

A neutral party, I was willing to defend. An active participant in war, not so much.

The Kushan thanked me for my previous help, and then told me they understood my reasons. They didn't back down.

I took my ships and left.

+++

Watching the war play out was... a rather interesting thing. At first, it seemed to be going badly for the rebels, but as the Emperor continued to be silent, and more people began defecting, it eventually turned into a stalemate. Those who were left on the Emperor's side, continuing to follow him, were the fanatically loyal, who the Emperor had previously installed and given the best ships, the best equipment.

The Rebellion, in contrast, spread quickly, and a number of Taiidan worlds, composed mostly of civilians, shuffled resources and manpower the Rebellion's way, acts that would earn them destruction if the loyalists learned of it.

A tipping point appeared in the form of the Kushan Mothership. Heavily armed and armoured, the Mothership joined the conflict when it was attacked by Taiidan Loyalists while it was harvesting resources from an asteroid belt. It was a small fleet, and they stood no chance against the Heavy Ion Cannon-equipped Mothership.

The Kushan had been very eager to put the technology they gained to good use. The rebels had been equally eager to get them on their side; as were the loyalists in destroying them.

The months passed fairly slowly while the war progressed. In the meantime, I continued hunting for the Beast.

+++

While I had encountered bits and pieces of the Beast as I travelled further and further, it wasn't until I reached a galaxy nearly 9.8 million light years away from my starting point that I encountered a full-scale Beast infection.

And by full-scale, I mean a galaxy where the Beast had successfully devoured every single biological entity within, and then subsequently gone on to devour everything else.

It was... not a nice find. This galaxy was a fairly small one, 34 thousand light years across, half spiral. The inhabitants had developed extremely primitive Hyperspace technology, topping at 1.5c. The Beast had arrived in this galaxy from a ship that was much faster, capable of jumping 10 light years a day.

The Beast had spent up the vast majority of its fuel supply getting to this galaxy, and had used the last bit to set itself on the collision course for an inhabited planet.

The planet had been consumed in days. Its inhabitants had been absorbed into the Beast, screaming, and from them, the Beast had pulled the locations of other inhabited worlds in the galaxy.

With the Beast's knowledge, it had been able to modify the inhabitants' Hyperspace technology to jump straight past the inhabitants' defences. Every ship, every planet, every system, all were consumed as the Beast spread.

The Beast sent more ships in every direction, upgraded, to infect more galaxies. Most didn't have the fuel to get all the way there, and had simply drifted the last bit of the way. Some ran into new civilizations, some would be stranded, a few were destroyed as they were caught on powerful Gravity Wells.

Most of the other galaxies had escaped full scale infection, destroyed either as the Beast made mistakes, or as the inhabitants proved hardier and more capable than the Beast itself...

But the source galaxy was consumed. The Beast devoured all, ate away at the raw resources and materials, and processed it into new Beast biomatter...

Everything the Beast could eat, they did. Only stars and black holes escaped its hunger. Everything else was consumed slowly, over the hundreds of millions of years they were here.

My Castles arrived to find a galaxy that was living, breathing, and hungry. It wanted nothing more than to devour me, its mind a total abyss, clawing at me.

It was not the best decision the Beast could have made.

The difference between us was like the difference between a dim match, and a trillion exploding stars. I was a psychic capable of twisting the very fabric of reality, running on enough computers to out-mass the entire local galactic cluster.

The Beast... wasn't.

It clawed, and failed to even scratch my mind. I clawed, and tore its mind to infinitesimal shreds.

I followed up by tearing apart its body. I scorched Beast-planets and Beast-moons right down to the very cores, enveloping them waves of hellish heat, creating fires of such temperatures that they made stellar plasma seem cool in comparison.

I played with gravity itself, creating rippling gravitational pulses that sundered entire worlds; alternating between so low that the planets would simply fall apart under mere solar wind, and so high that they collapsed altogether, compressing into neutron degenerate matter.

I split the very energy they were made of apart, took Altea's teachings to their logical conclusion and Unmade the Beast wherever I found it, created all consuming storms of burning Light and blinding Dark...

I imposed my will on the very fabric of reality itself. I demanded that the Beast end, and the Beast was left with no choice but to comply.

Oh, it tried to fight back. Tried. Infection Beams, Cruise Missiles, Ion weapons- All insignificant; none succeeded. What little I didn't weave out of reality met shields powerful enough to take a small moon slamming into them, and they found no purchase.

I left a trail of oblivion in my wake where my Castles passed. Not even the tiniest bit of matter the Beast infected survived; I destroyed it all, and tossed the remains into Phase Space to be removed from existence.

By the time that I was done, there was nothing left but stars and black holes. My Castles moved onwards, leaving behind only a single Ember.

Now, onto the next.

142

+++

The Mothership... was doing fairly well. The Emperor was still unresponsive, caught up in dealing with the emotions of everybody around him, and that was wearing down the Taiidan loyalists significantly. With their central authority simply not doing anything, an awful lot of whispers about joining the rebels were going around.

The Mothership itself had made a path through Taiidan space, supported by a number of rebels, its own upgrades, and the ever growing fleet that it was amassing, formed from both captured Taiidan vessels, and purpose built Kushan ones.

Things were going pretty good for them. The Mothership had the firepower to do more than just float around looking pretty, and the Kushan fleet was enjoying a number of upgrades from what they would have had in canon, too. Lots more Ion Cannons, for starters.

The Kushan seemed very fond of them. It wasn't hard to imagine why.

My hunt for the Beast was going about as well. I'd scoured a number of galaxies, indexed thousands of species, planets, and ecosystems, and destroyed far more Beast instances than I cared to count. There were far too many of them out there, just drifting around in space, waiting for somebody to stumble upon them. How fortunate that it was me who did the stumbling, rather than a less prepared group.

I hadn't yet found any Beast instances that were in conflict with something else, which was both good and bad. Good, because they weren't killing, bad, because that usually meant they had already finished killing everything.

It seems my initial area was a bad example. Where I had previously found only a single galaxy where the Beast had eaten everything; that number had grown to fifty nine. The number of infected ships I found drifting through intergalactic space was... way too damn high.

It seemed, in most cases, that the Beast lacked access to powerful and fast FTL. Quite possibly the only reason why literally everything hadn't been consumed already, I suppose, because if all Beast instances had started out with vessels like the Naggarok... yikes. Spreading everywhere would have been well within their power.

Forgot to mention, but I checked out the Milky Way, too. The galaxy that Homeworld takes place in is the Whirlpool Galaxy, which was about 25~ million light years away from the Milky way.

Found Earth. The place is clear, pristine, and shows absolutely no signs that Humans had ever inhabited it. No cities, nothing. Mars, however, is absolutely covered with HW-Progenitor cities, which is completely empty of any actual living beings. No battle damage or anything like that, though the world is being maintained entirely by robots, and it too has a complete lack of data for me to raid in order to find out what happened.

The existence of ship wreckage would apparently demonstrate that whatever happened to them involved at least some level of violence, but aside from that? Couldn't find anything. They apparently just decided to pop out of existence and leave some wreckage and remains for shits and giggles.

But still, why?

+++

The Mothership had followed a fairly odd path through Taiidan space. Namely, directly through Taiidan space. They did not attempt to skip through the Gardens of Kadesh, but instead leaped through contested zones between the rebels and the loyalists. Their combat prowess grew with every battle, and the sight of the Mothership soon became a beacon of hope for the rebels, and a sign of impending doom for the loyalists.

The Mothership's habit of leaping into hotly contested zones and defeating the loyalists led to a rather odd effect on the war. The Mothership tended to leave behind rebels in control of whatever they were fighting the loyalists for, and this constant intervention quickly saw the rebels owing the Mothership and its attending fleet a lot of favours, which were usually spent to acquire intel, resources, repairs, and whatever supplies the Mothership couldn't get itself.

The Mothership became the tip of a spear that pushed right into the heart of the Taiidan's territory, aimed straight for Hiigara itself. Backed up by supplies and reinforcements coming from the areas the Mothership cleared, the rebels quickly took every bit of ground the loyalists couldn't defend, recruiting and freeing civilians from the loyalist's grasp. They attacked frequently, and while the rebels weren't always met with success, they still prevented the Taiidan loyalists from concentrating on the Mothership.

The Galactic Council watched the Rebellion with a wary eye, refusing to intervene. The Kushan's involvement in it was noted, but given that the third Taiidan attack had effectively declared war between the two polities, not contested.

The Bentusi also watched the conflict, particularly the Mothership. They were aware of what the rest of the galaxy was not, and knew that the Kushan unwittingly held the Second Hyperspace Core. They were simply waiting for the Kushan to realize that particular fact.

Due to the original movements of the Mothership, Kharak had a buffer of rebels between them and the loyalists. A single attempt was made to attack it, but it failed to even reach the desert world, disassembled by the rebels it tried to push past.

It took nearly eight months, but the Mothership eventually did enough damage to the loyalists that the rebels became able to simply roll over them with sheer weight of numbers.

It started as a single assault, entire fleets of rebel ships jumping from world to world, clearing out whatever loyalists existed, before moving on to the next. Eventually, that assault encountered the Mothership, and Kushan fleet joined them as they spiralled inwards to the core worlds of the Taiidan Empire, liberating planets as they passed- until, ultimately, they arrived at Hiigara's doorstep, the Hyperspace Inhibitors that were meant to prevent anybody from jumping directly to the planet itself.

It was a single planet, the most heavily guarded in the entire Taiidan Empire. The assault split up, and had hit every Hyperspace inhibitor simultaneously.

The Taiidan didn't have enough ships to successfully guard them all. One fell, and the remains of the fleet joined the attack on another Inhibitor, which fell soon after, and the process repeated until every single one had been destroyed, and the assault had gathered again.

The battle for Hiigara commenced not even an hour later.

143

+++

It was one of the fiercest, most destructive battles the galaxy knew of. The entire rebel fleet, alongside the Kushan Mothership and its attending fleet, against the remainder of the Taiidan loyalists, backed into a corner with all their remaining forces guarding the Emperor's flagship. There were thousands of vessels on both sides, and all of them were hunting for the blood of their enemies.

By the end of it, mere dozens of vessels were all that had survived. The Mothership had been damaged rather significantly, and its attending fleet crippled, while the rebel ships had suffered incredible damage, what scant few ships had escaped total destruction bleeding atmosphere and bearing jagged scars of molten and torn armour.

Riesstiu remained unresponsive to the very last. He did nothing to defend himself when the Mothership Fleet destroyed his ship, ion beams carving into it, autocannons ripping holes in the structure, before a final, critical plasma bomb sent the Taiidan Flagship's reactor into a runaway, unstable and extremely destructive reaction.

The explosion was rather pretty to watch, I'd admit.

Regardless, the destruction of the Emperor's Flagship and the death of the Emperor spelled the end of the Taiidan Empire. The sabotage of the royal cloning facilities soon afterwards simply ensured that the Emperor would not be returning, and completed the fall of the Empire.

The aftermath of the rebellion took months to settle, but the results were rather interesting. The rebels, recognizing the efforts of the Kushan and their involvement in the war, turned over Hiigara to them, much to the barely-hidden delight of the Mothership Fleet. The rebels themselves soon moved to set up a government that could keep order and stability, though it'd be a while before that actually settled into place.

Longer still depending on how it developed. If they tried to set up a monarchy like the Empire had been, the vast majority of the worlds would probably split up into dozens of little, separate governments. It currently looked like it would be developing in the direction of a democratic republic- which was about as far as you could get from the previous system.

It was rather interesting, actually. I'd have to watch it as it developed.

+++

I felt arms wrap around my Avatar.

"Another one." Anastasia muttered.

"This is the five hundredth and forty ninth." Little1 spoke equally softly.

I leaned back, pulling them both onto my lap. My arms wrapped around them, and I sighed. "Yeah..."

Galaxy A2D4-H2K-2J4, now renamed Beast Galaxy-549.

After visiting so many galaxies, I'd found that the average galaxy in this universe contained 42.56 sapient species of varying stages of development, and a further 893.98 life-bearing planets within. Beast Galaxy-549 was over two million light years wide, far and away larger than the average galaxy. I could expect to find hundreds of sapient species, and tens of thousands of life-bearing worlds-

If, of course, the galaxy hadn't already been completely devoured by the Beast.

It was... it was just so...

Eugh.

I swear, whatever setting I travel to next better be fucking smiles, sunshine and rainbows. My amusement and tolerance for shit like this was at an all-time low.

Heads would roll if the next one was depressing.

I began playing with Little1's and Anastasia's hair, only barely paying attention to the act. At the same time, I attacked with Core Amplifiers and Protocrafters, stealing information and leaving naught but shattered Beast-minds in my wake. When I had what I wanted, I killed them, destroyed them, and then tossed whatever remained into oblivion. That task completed, purely routine by this point, I left only a single Ember behind before having the Castles move on, re-joining the search for more Beast to annihilate.

That Ember quickly began duplicating, and, an hour later, I had a fairly sizable swarm ready to go. Not all that long after, I had a quartet of Castles for every stellar system in the entire galaxy.

Space was all too empty after I cleaned out the Beast. Planets, moons, asteroids... the Beast assimilated everything of sufficient mass. The only things left, as I had said, were stars and black holes, the only two celestial objects which could escape the Beast's infection.

Though certainly not for lack of trying on the Beast's part.

Regardless- space was empty. I held the data that the Beast held, which included... pretty much everything about this galaxy, from its inhabitants to the chemical compositions of the rocks the Beast ate. Enough to remake what the Beast had devoured- but why stop there, at just what the Beast had devoured?

It was part spite, and part desire to cheer myself, Little1, and Anastasia up. Spite, because when I was finished, this entire galaxy would be filled with life, countless variations of it- and the Beast would never be able to touch it. Cheering ourselves up, because seeding life and fixing what the Beast had done proved a considerable source of happiness that was definitely needed after dealing with the Beast.

I couldn't bring back all the people the Beast had devoured, all the lives lost, but I could ensure life would flourish again.

By the time I was done, this galaxy, much like every galaxy that the Beast had devoured, would be a monument to life, absolutely, utterly, completely full of it. I was going to seed hundreds of thousands of ecosystems, whether by building them wholescale, or simply by introducing bacteria and waiting for it to flourish and develop on its own. Life from all sorts of different places, all sorts of ecosystems, drawn from the hundreds of thousands of different worlds that I had encountered, indexed and archived.

I fully intended to keep them safe- all of them would be watched over by Castles, hidden away and unnoticeable, just to make sure that nothing happened to them. The Beast, or any like it, would find absolutely no luck if they came to devour or destroy what I had built, but...

That was a long time away, yet. So much time for everything to come to fruition, but time was one thing that I had in spades.

144

+++

They were powerful, the most advanced group of their galaxy. Their technology was unsurpassed, and they boasted the fastest Hyperdrives around, which allowed them to dominate those who might come to fight against them. They had taken cybernetics to the limit, and linked themselves with their ships, their technology, uploading their minds into their computers, immortal, ageless, and the closest thing to perfection.

Still-Organics would contest that last bit, but never successfully. Many attempted, and they only laughed among themselves, idle chatter streaming across Quantum Communicators, even as they routed and pushed back the Still-Organics. Eventually, they would stop trying to fight- how could they possibly contest them, when they could travel a hundred light years in but a day?

So sure they were of their dominance that, at first, the streams of warnings from extra-galactic monitoring stations were ignored, dismissed as a glitch. The seven diagnostics in as many seconds all returning no errors, however, quickly brought their attention to the matter.

The data that came back was impossible- except, evidently, not.

Quantum Communicators allowed them to debate, and, for the first time in a very long time, they experienced lag, the servers overloaded with communication.

Information was considered, hotly contested, and then accepted. There was a massive, all-encompassing quantum wake travelling towards their galaxy, at a speed of 567.1047002 light years per second. The quantum wake was so massive that it encompassed the entire area of the monitoring stations' sensors, which made it, at minimum, several hundred thousand light years wide.

Whatever could cause such a thing escape them. They considered many things, from a natural event, to an echo of a weapon of unimaginable scale- and then the wave came closer, and the monitoring stations' sensors finally picked up on the countless objects travelling through Hyperspace at impossible velocities.

For what reason, they didn't know. They considered several possibilities, but there was simply no information to go on. This could have been anything, for who knew what alien logic these alien objects operated on?

Some considered it an invasion. Others, pacification. A few called it an act of the gods.

Whatever the case, they prepared for the worst- that these ships came with purpose of extermination. There was no time to consolidate their fleets, so they simply grouped their ships together in defensive matrixes, pointed at the objects that came ever unstoppably closer.

Whatever they had been expecting, it was not that they would be ignored. The objects, numberless, continued straight through the galaxy, not even dropping out of Hyperspace, despite the fact that so many of them passed straight through the gravity fields of planets and stars, and a few crossed even black holes, too.

At their velocities, it would be mere minutes before they crossed the width of the galaxy, perhaps oblivious to the chaos that would inevitably be caused to the Still-Organics, and, not that they would ever admit it, to them.

The vast majority of the numberless objects did just that- but there was one single exception.

It was a small, out of the way research station, positioned near the galactic center, close to a region of black holes whose gravity would prevent any of the Still-Organics from reaching it. No obstacle for the objects.

One of them appeared in real-space suddenly, its transition marked only by its sudden presence, with not even a Quantum Wavefront forming from its passage. At 100 kilometres tall, and 37.67767 wide, it was instantly the largest Hyperspace capable object they knew of.

What few ships they had guarding the research station began turning, but the object pulsed a turquoise blue, and broke apart, expanding into dozens of different pieces that floated almost languidly. Twelve smaller objects gathered, forming a trio of broken rings along each axis. Their ships had only just completed turning when the massive object began gathering energy, a golden glowing mass appearing and quickly expanding.

The ships ran scans, supported by the research station they guarded. The object proved impregnable, but they could at least get a sense for how much energy was contained in that golden mass- and they ran it three times just be sure.

The results came back the same all three times.

It was more energy than their entire civilization could generate in ten years.

There was a burst of energy from the core, shooting out before smoothly curving towards the research station, bypassing all four ships that had guarded it. It hit- and the results were unexpected. That bolt of energy had contained more than enough energy to instantly vaporize the entire facility, and all four ships along with it, yet all that happened was a golden wave expanding throughout the facility from where the bolt had struck.

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the object was gone, vanishing back into Hyperspace.

They started diagnostics on the research facility, which reported that every system was completely intact, and the hull entire undamaged. Nothing had happened, despite the colossal, impossible amounts of energy that had struck it.

There was, however, a few things missing.

Sample B3457 was gone, as was a portion of the data they had gained from studying it. A quick examination was all that they required to determine that only the data they would have needed to reproduce it was gone, everything else was intact. All data on that subject was gone, from the main computer, from the backups, from the hardcopies, and from the database that had been physically separated from the rest of the system.

There was a file that hadn't been previously present, which they shortly opened. It was a text file, rather significant in size, and it contained a message in their language, followed by the same message in every variation of their language, then every language of the Still-Organics, and then every variation of every language of the Still-Organics.

Sample B3457 has been mandated destruction by Authority: Drich. Please accept apologies for any inconvenience this mandate has caused.

Have a nice day.

+++

The next few years passed slowly. A lot of stuff happened, both in and outside of the whirlpool galaxy. When it came to the inside, some of it actually proved rather interesting.

It hadn't taken all that long for the Kushan to set up liveable areas on Hiigara's surface. They built up mostly in deserts to start off with, planting Kharak's crops in special facilities built up on the only places of Hiigara where the crops would not only survive, but thrive. After that, they checked to see how compatible they were with other sources of food on the planet, making sure they wouldn't catch diseases or get sick from eating certain foods.

The moment they figured out was what good for them and what wasn't; they started shipping over Kharak's citizens, using the technologies they'd gotten throughout the war to construct newer, better, faster transports, aboard which were equipment, food, supplies, and the citizens themselves, held in cryostasis. It was slow going at first, but it sped up as they ironed out problems, as their fleet grew, and more people were transported to their ancient home.

There were a few who tried to stop it, but Heavy Ion Cannons dissuaded the Turanic Raiders and the remnants of the Taiidan loyalists from trying too often. Still, it provoked a fair amount of caution on the Kush- Hiigaran's behalf.

They estimated that it would be roughly ten years before they had everyone and everything moved over- or, at least those who wanted to come over, though that represented the vast majority of their population.

I had, after the war, also made them aware of the Kadesh. What they would do with the information was up to them.

The Taiidan rebels had set up something that sort of resembled a government, if you squinted. It wasn't all that much, but they were working on it and continuously attempting to improve it, so kudos to them. Any suggestions of an emperor or similar power in the new government were shot down basically on principle, which was great.

The Galactic Council had recognized the legitimacy of both groups, which... didn't really mean much, all things considered, other than the fact that it would allow the Hiigarans and the new Taiidan Republic to raise matters to the Council's attention. It wouldn't matter unless they were attacked by an outside group, which was markedly unlikely.

The Bentusi were patiently waiting for the Hiigarans to discover the truth of their Hyperspace Core. Given that the Mothership had done nothing more than hang in Hiigara's orbit, producing ships for the Hiigarans, that would take quite a bit of time. Aside from the occasional business dealing with the Hiigarans, the Bentusi didn't interact with them much.

I stayed out of sight, for the most part. Every now and then, one of my ships would pop up near a barren planet on the galactic rim, far outside of anybody's territory, but aside from the occasional talks with the Bentusi, I simply didn't interact with anybody.

That most of the planets I visited would become habitable in a few billion years went unnoticed. It hadn't happened yet, and nobody was really paying attention to the orbits of a couple asteroids. Who was going to notice if a big enough rock was now on a trajectory to be captured as a planets moon, or some ice asteroids had shifted into precisely calculated impact velocities that would spread water all over a planet whilst simultaneously stirring up nearly perfect conditions for some basic bacteria to form?

Nobody, that's who. I was the only one who would ever know.

As for matters outside of the galaxy...

My expansion throughout the universe continued, as did my wiping out the Beast wherever I found it. It went about as well as I expected, by which I meant perfectly fine and with absolutely no problems on my end thanks to the utterly ridiculous amount of forces I'd thrown at the problem.

I'd found the Beast's source- encountered an instance of the Beast that held the knowledge, then pulled it from its mind, at least.

It had originated about one and a half billion years ago, as the product of research into a bioweapon being pursued by a species on the brink of annihilation. They had been at war with another group, who the Bentusi might have called Unbound. The second group had thought itself utterly, totally superior to the other races in the galaxy, and because they were so superior, it was their duty to uplift the others, civilize them, and make them Unbound.

Forcibly, if they needed to. They were the most superior, so obviously they knew best, after all.

The others disagreed. Force did prove to be necessary. It did not end well for them, which is where the bioweapon came in.

It was meant to devour them, make them Bound, make them no better than the others of the galaxy, thus removing their so-called 'superiority'.

It succeeded. It succeeded beyond its creators' wildest dreams. The Unbound of that time were consumed- and then the Beast turned upon the Bound, and consumed them too. They had made it so that it wanted nothing more than to eat, to devour, to assimilate- and so it did.

From there, it spread, limited by imperfect Hyperspace technology, not always successful in devouring galaxies, and often left drifting through space to inevitably be discovered later, but regardless of any setbacks, it spread. Some instances were more successful than others, gathering new technology and spawning dozens of other child instances, which followed different paths of development, and ultimately met success and failure alike.

It would seem that the Beast was ultimately less successful rather than more. I suppose I should consider that a good thing, really, but still...

I'd stopped counting how many galaxies the Beast had consumed after it surpassed the first hundred million. I'd stopped counting the lives long before that. I could count them- it would take no more effort than a simple tally for both, but I couldn't quite bring myself to do it.

A hundred million and a quintillion were numbers that were much easier to deal with than the far larger numbers that were the reality.

Homeworld was depressing. Too many tombs.

I... don't think I'll be staying here for too much longer. Sure, I'll leave some ships around for if the plot of Homeworld 2 still happened, but I think it's high time I move on for the moment.

Just to try and get my mind off things.

No matter how impossible that was these days.

146

+++

The swirling blue energy of the Teleporter gave way to my Commander, bending over to fit through it. The disassembled pieces of my Halo floated behind it, before reassembling as my Commander straightened up.

"I'm home~"

"Welcome back, Creator-Mother."

"You didn't really leave..."

"It's the principle of the thing, Anastasia." I chuckled. My Commander walked forwards, the head tilting upwards for a moment.

A kaleidoscope of colours greeted my optical sensors; black and white, red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple. Dozens of colours carefully arranged together, blocking the view of space.

"You two had way too much fun building those planets." I noted.

"You didn't object?" Anastasia asked.

"I didn't." I agreed. "It looks good. Well done." My avatar smiled at theirs.

I had, of course, been aware of what they had been building. I had watched them build it. I had simply said that then and there for the same reason I had said I was home when my Commander came back.

It was just the principle of the matter. It gave it a more... permanent feeling, I guess.

Oh well.

I raised my arms, examining them.

I hadn't really done much with the Asura outside of that initial bonanza. I suppose that isn't strange given that it was Homeworld, where the only thing that mattered were ships and not ground combat forces- of which the Asura was still technically a part of.

I let my arms drop.

Eh. Didn't matter too much, I suppose.

I turned the Asura around, facing it towards the Teleporter again. I didn't send it off- just left it there for the moment.

My avatar leaned back, hands coming to rest behind my head. The seat tipped backwards automatically, and a footrest extended. I looked up at the ceiling. Every atom was perfectly positioned, neat rows forming neat molecules, not one out of place, a show of mathematical precision. Little1 and Anastasia settled on the arm rests, both of them laying down next to me.

I smiled, moving my hands to ruffle their hair, before hugging them both.

"So how are my two darling children doing?" I asked- as if I didn't already know.

Little1 smiled, while Anastasia gave a slight blush, digging into my side more.

"We're great." Little1 nodded.

"Yes you are." I grinned. "The best, in fact."

These two...

No matter what, I'd always have these two.

+++

I hummed a cheerful tune as I wandered down the streets. A cascading series of glowing energy lines linked the city around me, providing light throughout the city. Dozens of floaty bits decorated the buildings, hovering up and out of the way, some completely freestanding, while others seemed to be linked with more of the energy strings.

White and gold were predominate here, though it included smidgens of other, brighter colours where appropriate. I turned the corner, stepping through a Teleporter, and arrived at a dark and colourless world. Rain dripped from the skies above, adding to the almost dreary atmosphere. Neon signs provided the only source of light, and they fought hard against the darkness, leaving long and stretching shadows.

The rain soaked me, but evaporated as I passed through another teleporter, this time appearing at a city intermixed with jungle. Winding columns of wood and vines held up large, open buildings, the air somewhat like a rainforest during autumn. Browns and greens were dominant, though there was the occasional flash of red and yellow that stood out among the foliage, catching the eye easily.

Another teleporter, and my breath came out in steamy bursts. White snow drifted softly from the skies, falling from bright white, false clouds. Buildings were presented among the snow, stretching upwards, the very picture of a city caught in eternal winter. The snow never seemed to gather too high, despite the constant fall, and the ground was neither icy nor really that wet.

Yet another, and a wave of heat met me, massive buildings stretching up in the air, translucent roads of energy showing roiling tides of lava below. The architecture was blocky and metallic, solid looking constructions with jagged tips that glowed with dull red heat. Fields of energy would keep any civilians safe, but the lava below seemed far too wild, too dangerous, for it to be tamed.

One more, and this time, rock buildings greeted me, formed into neat shapes that were packed closely together. Streams of light extended from the rooftops, curving upwards and over the city to massive central tower, above which a ball of glowing golden energy hovered, providing light for the city like an artificial sun. The roads were smooth, polished rock, all acute angles, though any actual points and edges seemed to be smoothed into peaceful curves.

Third to last, and I arrived underground. The area was cavernous, wide open despite the location, and the buildings hung from the walls and ceiling, long railings and wires connecting them. They looked solid, but also relatively thin, with as much weight taken off of them as possible without compromising their integrity. Even then, some of the larger ones had supports connected to other buildings and walls, distributing the weight between them all.

Second to last, and I appeared in a building with transparent walls, crystal clear water in every direction. A number of smaller creatures drifted around, schools of fish swimming in patterns. I could see the rest of the city through the walls, stretching out in every direction. Light drifted down to the city, providing illumination to the upper layers, while bioluminescent creatures provided for the lower levels.

I passed through the final Teleporter, and arrived back at my home. Little1 and Anastasia were facing me, both of them with eager looks on their faces.

"You two did very well." I gave them the compliment they were waiting for.

Both of them grinned, though Anastasia ducked her head as she did, still a bit shy even after all this time.

I smirked, moving over and picking them both up, carrying them over to the couch.

"Now, I have an idea~"

147

+++

I hummed to myself, going over the design of the Asura Commander.

Incorporating the Naggarok's drive system into it had been easier than I had expected. I hadn't even really needed to modify too much about it, even the visual exterior appeared the same. Some of the internal armour had to be removed in order to incorporate it, sure, but now it was even faster and that much more capable of completely ignoring the laws of motion.

Always a plus.

I'd also done a slight modification to the hand arms, installing scaled-down Core Amplifiers into them. I'd become remarkably fond of those things while dealing with the Beast, and since installing them into the arms didn't compromise the armour or anything... Yeah. Why not?

It was just that little bit extra.

+++

It was impossible to see Exapol's star, its dull red light blocked by the many, many, many planets that Little1 and Anastasia had built. They had stuffed in as many as they could, the only thing stopping all the planets from crashing together in a cataclysm of truly epic proportions being the utterly incredible amount of gravitational and inertial control systems in each. Even then, the movement of planets was tightly controlled, preventing the destruction of their work.

If one could see the star, then they would also see the dyson shell slowly crawling around it, expanding as each day passed. That particular construction had begun relatively recently.

I had to wonder whether or not it would be completed before I got back from my next destination.

Oh well. I'd find out later.

"Have fun, you two~"

I didn't receive a response. Once again, Little1 and Anastasia were in the middle of an argument.

My Commander shot forwards, trailed by the eight pieces of its Halo.

I passed through the Teleporter.

+++

With a flash of light, I appeared in orbit- and hot damn that is a lot of ruined satellites.

My Asura Commander jolted from side to side, dodging wreckage in its path, before coming to a sudden stop in a relatively clear area.

Okay, satellites. Human designed, because that's English on that bit there, all broken. Other things...

Well, I could sense hatred at the planet below, just as vast as the Beast's hunger... I'll check out the source of that later. What else...

Not many radio communications. Just about zero long range radio communications, which was interesting. Actually, not too many long-ranged signals, period.

Doubly interesting. Find out why later.

What else...

Some giant crystal thing coming towards the planet slowly, which wouldn't arrive for quite some time at its current velocity. It's also sapient, because I can sense its mind. Pretty alien, actually. Not the most alien I'd ever encountered, but... I'm 98% certain it's also psychic. Investigate later.

What else... Loads of psychic communications down below. Had the same 'feel' as the thing coming towards the planet, but slightly different. The things below and the thing above weren't communicating. Another thing to investigate later.

Lastly, directly below me were the ruins of a base. Directly below me. Exactly 90 degrees, perfectly 90 degrees. No variance, in any direction, you could trace a perpendicular line directly from the center of the base to the center of my Asura.

Other life forms around? Nothing I was picking up.

Okay, that one first. Coincidences like that didn't just happen, after all.

I engaged the teleporter, and promptly vanished from sight.

+++

I rematerialized in the center of the base. The broken, ruined base, I couldn't help but note. Lot of stone, lot of metal, a fair amount of it torn up and ruined. A few skeletons here and there, which, scanning, were Human. Some portions of the base had spherical portions just missing, like that wall there, and those bits of the ground over there. Not blown up- missing. As if somebody had just erased spheres of matter from existence.

What setting am I in?

There were... How many factions that could do that? Too many to narrow it down easily.

Okay, time for more investigation. Stealth going on full, but if there were psychics floating around, I'd have to hope that either they couldn't detect machines, or incorporate psychic dampeners into everything. Fuck it, do the latter anyway.

Open up designs, slight modification for all units, save as their respective name plus 'PSI-DAMP' at the end. Swap arms for Fabricator Arms, plant down a Hub Network, swap back, and now wait for it to spread.

In the meantime, scouting the base.

Let's see, what else do we have around here... Bunch of ammo over there, a couple ruined tanks and other such large vehicles...

Hmm. Computer systems?

A few. Most were fried, unusable. Was the data intact? No, it was also fried.

What, had an EMP gone off here?

Quite likely, now that I think about it. Fucked up base in the middle of nowhere, computers were broken, hard drives were broken, had probably been attacked by a rather advanced force?

It fit.

Any surviving samples? Didn't look like it. Damn. That would have been helpful.

What else? That looked like an aircraft over there- or, at least, the remains of an aircraft. It was fairly boxy in shape, more like a big cargo container with wings attached to it rather than a traditional plane.

If this was an aircraft, then there was probably... Yeah, there. That looked like a hangar, being pretty damn tall and wide. Inside were more aircraft in various states, though the majority were pretty broken. Also present was what appeared to be a number of robots, again mostly destroyed.

They actually looked a fair bit familiar. I scanned them all, picking up some rather interesting readings in two of them, but ignoring that for now. I began mentally reconstructing the form of them, as well as the colour. There were two models here, one bright blue, and the other darker green and brown.

There was a bit.. of text...

...

Fafner.

...

Fafner in the Azure.

I swear, whatever setting I travel to next better be fucking smiles, sunshine and rainbows.

Heads. Will fucking. Roll.

148

+++

Fafner.

Fucking. Fafner.

That is not even remotely close to sunshine and rainbows. That series... Oh, by the time I'm done here, it will be, but...

Okay, what did I remember about Fafner?

Fafner, Fafner...

Okay, to start off. Aliens called Festum came to Earth, and met Humanity. Festum were a hive-minded species possessing extraordinary powers, capable of reading minds, disregarding physics, generating black holes, assimilating things, and all that kind of stuff. Festum also completely lacked any understanding of Humans, and couldn't conceive of individuality as something not broken and abnormal.

Naturally, this lead to the Festum attempting to 'fix' Humanity, which only really ended with them killing people. Humanity struck back in self-defence, and shit escalated from there.

Due to Festum being fuck-off powerful and incredibly dangerous, Humanity created the titular Fafners, giant mecha which incorporated Festum cores, and generally allowed Humanity to fight back against the Festum. Problem was, because of the incorporated Festum cores, the Fafners had a tendency to assimilate their pilots, which would ultimately result in them being devoured if they kept piloting for too long.

But that was a general overview.

More specifically, a Mir-Type Festum known as the Super-Ancient Mir may or may not have caused Humanity to evolve in the first place, and also may have been responsible for calling another Mir-Type Festum known as the Seto Inland Sea Mir to Earth. That Mir was found, and then studied under the orders of the Japanese government.

The Seto Mir didn't understand Humanity or how life in general worked on Earth. It tried to stop things from dying, but because it had no idea how things actually worked, all it did was render all of Japan infertile, Humans and animals alike.

Later on, a third Mir popped up, landing near the North Pole. That Mir attempted to fix Humanity, fucked it up, and subsequently caused war to break out between Humanity and the Festum.

At some point, the United Nations headquarters got wrecked by the Festum, which resulted in the founding of the Neo United Nations, and the Human Army. Sometime after, Kanto also got wrecked by the Festum, so the Neo United Nations and the Human Army decided to nuke Japan.

The rest of Japan was subsequently fucked sideways, leaving only a small portion of it still around. The remainder decided to build some giant mobile islands in which they could go live on, thus avoiding the NUNs who were clearly gigantic fuckheads. The Festum, too, but the NUNs were likely more pressing considering they managed to do more damage to Japan than the Festum ever had by that point.

Three such islands were built. All three apparently carried Mir with them. The one where Fafner's protagonists live is called Tatsumiya Island.

Development of Fafners happened around about that time. Also around about that time, the mothers of Protagonists #1 and #2 got assimilated. Protagonist #1, Kazuki Makabe, lost his mother, Akane Makabe, when she got assimilated by a Festum. That particular Festum then became independent and took Akane's form, because apparently Akane Makabe's mind caused one hell of a trip.

Protagonist #2, Soushi Minashiro, lost his mother, Saya Minashiro, when she was assimilated by the Mir. She was pregnant at the time, and her daughter, Tsubaki Minashiro, was fused with Tatsumiya's Core as a result.

What else...

The prequel happened, almost everybody died.

Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor happened, some people died.

Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor: Heaven and Earth happened, nobody died. Hell, one guy even came back to life.

I... need to find out what point in the timeline I'm in. Late enough that the Fafners were around, yes, but how far into canon had I showed up?

Well, I'd guess I'd find out soon enough as my Hub Network expanded. I'd just have to be careful and make sure it didn't run into any Festum.

In the meantime, investigations on my own part.

+++

I'd detected two anomalous readings in the Fafners. It wasn't until I gave them a second, closer look, that I actually found the reason why.

Those two Fafners, their pilots both dead, still had intact Festum cores. They were... barely there when it came to my psychic senses, and it was only because I had been deliberately looking for them that I actually found them.

I walked over to one of the Fafners. The chest was mostly intact, though the lower body was more or less flattened.

Let's see... The core held a psychic presence, but a very weak one, weaker still than even an average Human. Still, that was enough for me, I could interact with that.

I held my arms out, the fingers on each hand splaying out, palms pointed at the Fafner's chest. Core Amplifiers glowed as energy charged, again not necessary, but it would boost my abilities significantly.

Carefully, I touched the presence of the core, connecting to it. It was... not sapient, hell, it was barely even sentient, but it was a mind, no matter how primitive. Gently, I pressed deeper, examining what little information was contained within.

So very little. Some of the pilot's thoughts, scattered and split, which the core had assimilated. A feeling of pain, before an abrupt nothing, as the pilot died, crushed along with the rest of the Fafner's lower body.

The core... tugged is a word to express it, but wasn't quite good enough. It tried to assimilate me, tried to get into my mind. Assimilation crystals began to slowly spread over my Commander's arms.

I pushed back, forced it away from my mind- and though the spread of the crystals slowed significantly, it didn't stop.

Interesting.

I pushed further, reaching into what little of a mind it had. Then, I disrupted it- and the assimilation crystals promptly shattered, exploding into nothing. It was an instinct, really, nothing more than an expression of a Festum's ability, and it was subsequently easy to stop it.

Had it been an actual Festum... Well, I don't know. Would I still be able to stop it? No clue. Something that warrants safe testing.

But first, this.

The glow of the Core Amplifiers intensified a little as I continued to push deeper. Every bit of information it had was assimilated, every 'memory', I sought out, and took for myself, copying them.

Festum Lifeforms... How interesting. The Halo behind me activated, beginning to construct a Protocrafter, which I deliberately overpowered.

Now then, time for a deeper analysis.

+++

Festum... are weird. The core is emitting energy, seemingly generated from nothing -not that odd these days-, whilst also acting as a combined memory storage and data processing unit.

The core seems to be composed mostly of silicates and photon-crystalline bodies. The latter is very strange; I've never seen anything quite like it before. Little1 and Anastasia are putting all their considerable processing power towards analysing it, as was I.

The Festum core does not appear to follow standard model of physics. It is vulnerable to force and physical destruction, but does things that it really shouldn't be able to do.

I was throwing all of my knowledge towards this thing. Masari insight and Seraphim knowledge were helping significantly, but the Festum were unlike anything either had encountered, so there was only so far both could help. I also couldn't help but feel like I was missing something.

Replicating it... should be possible? The structure isn't so exotic that I would be able to dismiss replicating it out of hand; I could certainly arrange the matter that way to replicate the crystal core. Whether the replicated core would maintain the same abilities, however... Little1 and Anastasia got to work on that, while I focused my attention on this core.

Festum cores were already capable of multiplication, if the series had been any indication. Was another core a key component of that? No idea. Experiments to run.

Luckily, I had two cores, which gave me a bit of wriggle room as far as experiments went.

This core was unintelligent, barely sentient. Could I control it?

With a quick pulse of baleful psychic energies, I shattered the core's mind, wiping it from existence. The glow of the core dimmed slightly, which I noted with interest. The core itself was still there, however. I began transferring data to it, synching it with my mind and my network, and I watched it expand as more data was transferred over. The synchronisation completed, and the glow of the core brightened again, now even more luminous than it was before.

Interesting.

There was a brief moment of vertigo, before data began streaming back. I experienced as the core experienced, and the core experienced as I did. The core was running my consciousness, just as all of my units did. A bit of an odd feeling, as the core was very different, but still... I was the core, and the core was me.

And, naturally, that meant that it's capabilities were mine. I just... had to figure out how to use them.

Let's start with assimilation... At least partially psychic in nature, so... Like this?

I pulled, and the core twisted, a wave of assimilation crystals suddenly appearing on the Fafner's chest, and then spreading out from there to cover the rest of it. I was aware of it, right down to a quantum level, as if I had scanned it with a Protocrafter going on full. The information, the data, expanded as the assimilation crystals did, utterly complete.

There was a chiming noise as the crystals shattered, revealing the core, exposed to open air. The Fafner, shattered pieces and all, was gone, assimilated.

A very interesting experience. I disengaged the Core Amplifiers, though psychic connection stayed. Where did the matter go? Was it destroyed, transformed into information?

Hmm.

I wonder... In the Heaven and Earth movie, those Eurus-Type Festum could create guns... could I..?

A twitch, and assimilation crystals promptly spread over the core, before expanding further, growing outwards into the air. They kept growing, expanding, until they were a bit over forty five meters tall, the same size as my Commander. For a moment, they simply hung there, and I considered.

If assimilation is pulling in, then this would be... pushing out?

I considered what I wanted. Not too much, really. I spent a moment designing it, and pushed-

Another chime came as the assimilation crystals shattered, revealing a slim, almost skeletal mech.

Aha, I can~

Assimilation applied in reverse. Not to consume, but to construct. Once again, the mass for it seemed to come out of nowhere, popping into existence from nothing. That was going to be an interesting avenue to explore.

The mech wasn't too much. Just a platform to keep that core safe, though it included all the usual systems, and even two Core Amplifiers built into the arms. The core synched with the mech, and the mech's quantum communication systems synched with the rest of my network, a more elegant and less detectable solution than a psychic link.

Now then.

I turned away, walking over to the other Fafner. Both Core Amplifiers in my arms glowed.

Time for the other one.

+++

I hummed lightly as a Pelican lifted off, large and thick cables lifting a platform into the air, aboard which was the other Fafner. It was going straight to Little1 and Anastasia, for them to play with to their hearts' content.

The core on that one hadn't contained all that much more information than the first. It didn't matter too much, really.

The Pelican passed through the Warp Chasm, and I shortly deconstructed it, leaving not even a single trace behind.

Now then... Before I messed around too much, I was going to wait for my Hub Network to expand a bit. I wanted more information, and if I could lift it from the databanks of people who had done far more study into the Festum than I had, all the better.

Until then... I was going to have to refine the design of the mech. It was in dire need of upgrade, in my opinion. It was currently way too weak, and far too fragile, for it to be storing something as valuable as the core currently was.

Let's see... better servomotors, much thicker armour, some energy generation, more stealth, more mobility systems, teleportation... Resource Cores?

Sure, just eight, though. That would be more than enough to ensure the total destruction of the unit should it become necessary, and I didn't really intend to use this thing as a construction unit, so I wouldn't need all that extra metal generation.

The skeletal appearance had to go. Too thin. Thicken the armour, add a lot of bulk for internal system space. Weapons? Core Amplifiers. Lots of punch for its size. More important that it runs away rather than getting into conflicts it can't win, at least until I can either confirm that new Festum cores can be constructed, or gain a new supply.

Eh... Things for later.

150

+++

About three hours in, my Hub Network had already spread pretty far, though it still had another six hours to go before I got everything.

I'd already found quite a bit of stuff.

First, there was a giant array of shield generators, the vast majority non-functional, sitting around Russia. I distinctly did not recall their existence in the show.

Beyond that wall, however, the land was barren, just about everything was dead, and there was an entire forest of Festum just sitting around.

Quite literally- there was a literal forest of green assimilation crystal trees, the occasional small Festum roaming around inside. I could feel its mind fairly easily; it was both developed and quite expansive, lots of little minds linked together with each other, and a controlling Mir.

I didn't sense any hostility from it. It didn't sense me, period.

I left it alone for the moment, leaving a fairly wide exclusion zone for my Hub Network which encompassed the entire forest.

Second, I found a couple NUN bases. Fairly isolated, but most of them were well equipped, several Fafners present, as well as other vehicles and defence systems. They were prepared for an overt assault via the Festum. They were not prepared for me.

It wasn't too hard to figure out the timeline once I had access to their records.

Apparently, I was post-series. Post-movie, too. The North Pole Mir had been wrecked a while back, and records for Eurus-Type Festum were also present. The date was June 25, 2150.

I was about two years ahead of the movie, four ahead of the series.

This... was new to me. Usually, I arrived before everything went to shit. I'd never arrived so far afterwards like this.

I really had to wonder why that was.

I'd borrowed the designs and technology of everything I found, conventional and unconventional alike. Technology and data related to Fafners were something I was especially interested in, and I copied everything I could. Reproducing the Fafners themselves, as well as the equipment they used, was something I could now do- excepting the Festum cores. Little1 and Anastasia hadn't yet successfully managed it, despite the amount of effort they were putting in. They agreed with me, I- we were missing something.

+++

About four hours in and hot damn that was a lot of Festum.

There was a NUN base in Hawaii, the largest transport base in the region according to the records I'd borrowed. It was pretty important, because it shipped a lot of resources around; if it was destroyed, millions would starve.

It was also currently being attacked by Festum.

Loads and loads and loads of Festum.

I counted thousands, of various types, and all of them were set to make quite the mess. I could detect Human Army transports incoming, no doubt carrying Fafners.

I had the option to let them handle it- but that would inevitably result in more people dying, and I'd long since made my decision when it came to things like that, hadn't I?

I was going to need an army. I'd need them to be very mobile, very powerful, and extremely tough, too.

Not all that hard.

Thankfully, I had quite the production capacity available to me thanks to the Hub Network, so it wouldn't be too hard to get enough factories running. Some units to fight the Festum, others to protect the Humans... What else?

Try to capture some Festum, maybe? Those would make much better study material than the Fafners I'd borrowed. Festum are linked in a hive mind though, so I'd have to be careful about that, as well as all their other abilities. Some extra facilities with very expansive self-destruction systems in case I couldn't contain them...

Right, that's a plan.

I'd need new designs to deal with the Festum, though. The ones fighting the Festum would need extreme mobility and offensive power in order to both kill Festum, not get caught by Festum, and escape the black hole generation that came when the Festum died.

Actually, all of them would need that. If you stood still you might as well just invite them to erase you from existence, or assimilate you. No stationary platforms of doom, only extremely mobile ones.

The ones attacking would need a good, reliable weapon. Something that could destroy Festum Cores easily. There was a weapon known as a Luger Lance that Fafners could use, which was basically a sword that doubled as a rail gun. It would be used to stab a Festum, and it would then open up, spreading a Festum's flesh and exposing the core to the gun, at which point it would fire and thus destroy the core. With Teleporters, I'd be able to control the engagement range, and since the Luger Lance was primarily a melee weapon, that was a fairly solid option for my hunters.

The ones defending would need an equally reliable gun. Long range, rapid fire, high accuracy, and large magazines, preferably. Lasers will do, especially since they came with the added benefit of not being possible to dodge. Festum were manoeuvrable as hell, and at least partially had the capability to redirect missiles... Yeah, lasers were definitely the way to go there.

The ones attempting capture would have to be equipped with Core Amplifiers and Manipulator Devices. They'd need to be powerful psychic units if I wanted them to actually have a chance at capturing Festum. If I could, then I'd be using them to cut the Festum off from the Hivemind, before using teleporters to remove them from the battle. If that was successful, I should be able to keep them contained.

Should. Didn't know for certain until I did it, after all. I hoped it would work, because that would make things so much easier.

I'd need... just a bit of time to set everything up. Not long, but long enough that a few people would probably lose their lives.

Hold on, I'm coming.


	16. Chapter 16: Logs 151-160

151

+++

My intervention in the battle came just under two minutes later.

It was just as devastating as it was sudden. My units teleported in and promptly went to town on the Festum.

The overall design of my units was similar enough, but there were a few ways to distinguish between the three types I had deployed. The offence units were equipped with modified and upgraded Luger Lances, the defence units were equipped with a multitude of laser weapons, and the capture units were bulkier than either of the other two.

All three went about causing havoc in their own ways.

The units had their own AI, but I took direct control of them all in this case. My offensive units appeared in close quarters combat with the Festum, and I had them run scans, locating the cores.

The moment I located them, I moved to attack, stabbing at the Festum with my Luger lances. Golden flesh tore under my weapons, the lances opening up and spreading the wounds, revealing the Festum cores. Hundreds of Festum very suddenly enjoyed a swift death as I fired the Luger Lances, before teleporting away as the Festum I had killed were suddenly consumed by black spheres, which faded away soon after, leaving nothing of the Festum behind.

Worm Spheres, they were apparently called. I didn't remember them being named in the series proper, but that was what the data I had gathered named them.

My defensive units appeared at a distance, some hovering in the air, some walking on the ground- but all promptly opened fire, their laser guns drawing energy from the units and sending beams of light through the Festum. Each one was equipped with four guns, two heavy cannons attached to the back, two heavy rifles in each arm. All four fired simultaneously, each one aiming and tracking different Festum.

In the vast majority of cases, the Festum that I targeted died then and there, Worm Spheres consuming them shortly afterwards. My units did not stay still, and I had them teleport around, flying and keeping on the move, not giving the Festum an easy shot at them.

The ones that survived were the ones that marked for capture. Mostly, they were the smaller, less dangerous Festum, though a Sphinx-Type or two were also marked.

The beginnings of their attack went about the same as the offence units. I had them teleport into close range with the Festum, Core Amplifiers and Manipulator Devices activating as they did. The actions they took from there differed depending on the type of Festum I was trying to capture, but not all that much. The ultimate goal was the same.

I grabbed the Festum, stopping their movements. From there, I began psychic assaults, pushing into the minds of the Festum, feeling for the psychic connection that linked them all together- and promptly severing it, leaving the Festum alone, separated from the Hive Mind, and in absolutely no position to stop me from further invading their minds. I disrupted them, drowned their minds in psychic chaff, preventing them from even thinking.

For the smaller Festum, I tasked only a single unit on their capture. For the Sphinx-Types, I had them work in teams of three, which was perhaps unnecessary, but not something I really wanted to test.

The moment I had the Festum disabled, my units vanished, teleporting away and taking their quarry along with them. They appeared inside the containment facilities I had constructed earlier, little more than deep-underground buildings fitted with energy shield generators, far larger Core Amplifiers and Manipulator Devices, Protocrafters, and other kinds of scanner equipment.

The captured Festum were split up, each one to its own facility. Each facility soon took over the task of mentally disrupting the Festum, keeping them from acting, keeping them from thinking, and thus enabling me the opportunity to study them without any attempts at escape.

The equipment I had installed activated, and I began scanning it.

Composition was similar to the Festum cores I had taken from the Fafners. Neat. These Festum had a very different core, a green gemstone rather than the twisting golden structure of the Fafner cores.

The Festum's memories... Yeah, they're there, more expansive than the two Fafner cores had been. Anything useful in them?

A bit. They remembered things they personally experienced, which included their 'births', formation of Worm Spheres, attacking Humans, assimilating things... There was a memory of the controlling Mir, which...

Looked... something like a giant... centaur... fish... thing.

I have never seen a Festum that looks like that. Holy fuck that thing is weird. And given the size, several hundred meters tall, probably very powerful too.

Oh, I was going to have to deal with that, wasn't I? It was the one controlling this swarm of Festum, and since that swarm was attacking the Humans... Yeah, it was probably hostile.

Fuck.

Hmm. Actually, I wonder...

My converted Fafner suddenly teleported in, appearing in front of one of the floating eye Festum. It didn't, and couldn't, react, and just floated there, contained inside an energy shield.

I disabled the shield a moment later, walking up to it. Both hands of my mech reached up and grabbed the left and right arms of the eye Festum.

Now then. Assimilation gave me awareness, information, of things. That should also apply to the Festum.

Assimilation crystals appeared over my mech's chest, spreading out slowly. They went down the arms, consuming them in masses of green crystal, and subsequently began spreading onto the Festum itself.

The Core Amplifiers and the Manipulator Devices prevented it from fighting back as the assimilation crystals spread. Information streamed back, and I sent it on to Little1 and Anastasia for them to analyse.

The crystals continued spreading, growing and enveloping the Festum entirely. More information, more awareness... So very interesting.

When the last bit of flesh was consumed, the assimilation crystals shattered, falling to the ground-

...

Ah.

I had been missing something.

Now I get it. That's how they work. Not too difficult I suppose...

The cores- the Festum were as much psychic as they were matter. What gave them the ability to do what they did wasn't the photon crystalline structure of the core, no. The important bit was the psychic component- the true Festum. The Festum were psychic entities masquerading as silicon and crystalline beings. Well, inhabiting rather than masquerading- Bleh, sidetracked.

Not... the weirdest form of life I'd encountered. The Seraphim Othuy held that particular distinction.

But now that I get that... I could replicate it, build off it, experiment with it. I analyzed how the Festum I had assimilated worked, how it did as it did. How it defied the laws of physics, how it formed Worm Spheres, how its ability to assimilate worked...

Then, I put it into use.

Assimilation crystals rapidly consumed my mech, spreading far faster than they had before, shattering immediately after they had consumed the entire mech. The golden core that I had taken over, now exposed to the open air, twisted; warping and falling in on itself, transforming into a more crystalline form- a more traditional Festum core.

The moment that transformation completed, another began, golden flesh exploding into existence around the core, quickly expanding. The organic bulging would be rather disturbing, but... Well, I'd dealt with the Beast. This was nothing compared to what the Beast did to organic things.

Muscle structures grew, and the blob of flesh quickly refined itself, taking shape; an appearance somewhat similar to my Asura Commander, though different in a few matters- the most obvious of which was the fact that it was glowing bright gold like a typical Festum. The other difference was that it was far more organic in appearance, with very little of the sharp angles the Asura had actually present.

Actually, that colour could be better.

The gold shifted, changing to a light blue.

Much better.

I nodded in approval as I looked at it. I had it spin, floating in place.

Hmm. Good enough for now. I'd have to make some more improvements, later.

Meanwhile, I have Festum to assimilate. 

152

+++

"Identification?"

"They're not broadcasting, sir!"

"Designs don't match anything we've ever seen!"

Today, Narain Wiseman reflected, had started out so well. They'd had an excess of food for the first time in quite a long time, the skies were a clear, beautiful blue, and the temperature was nice and low.

Then the Festum came, and what might have been a good day had promptly gone straight to hell.

"All forces to position A4; reinforce the lines!" He ordered.

Then some unknown machines had appeared quite literally out of nowhere, and what might have been a hellish day had promptly taken a turn for the strange.

Machines -Fafners, surely, as no normal machine could be that manoeuvrable, that fast, and that capable of killing Festum- which nobody recognized, weren't broadcasting IFF codes, and were proving extremely dangerous to the Festum swarm attacking the Big Island base.

"Where are our reinforcements?"

"Sixteen minutes out!"

The Big Island base had few Fafners on hand. The Festum had never even so much as looked at the region before- which made the sudden attack all the more debilitating. A number of Fafners had been in range for transportation, but they'd had to hold off the Festum on their own until they arrived.

They had not been doing too well.

"Sir!" One of the technicians shouted. "A new Festum has appeared!"

His men knew better than to tell him that if it was unimportant or unremarkable. "Main screen."

The technician nodded, and a few moments later, a video appeared, the tactical display shifting to the left.

Narain felt his breath catch in his throat. It was no normal Festum, that much was obvious; it was glowing light blue rather than the typical bright gold, and its shape was also much different. Humanoid, and possessing lithe, well defined muscles, and also lacking the halo that most Festum had.

All too quickly, it vanished, gone an instant. A moment later, the view switched to another camera-

Just in time to catch the new Festum grabbing hold of a Sphinx-Type, assimilation crystals -Also blue, he noted- spreading over the Sphinx's body, consuming it in less than a second. It vanished again, appearing in front of another Festum, this one still in view of the camera, at which point it promptly assimilated that one, too.

"Festum... fighting Festum?" He questioned, before shaking his head. "Ignore it- if it's hostile, we'll deal with it later. Focus on the rest of the swarm."

The video shrunk, and the tactical display opened up again. Narain looked over it, his eyes flicking from point to point, little blue markers for his own forces, white for the unknown machines, and red for the Festum.

One of the red markers shifted to yellow, tracking the strange Festum. It vanished and reappeared repeatedly, each time removing a red marker from existence.

The swarm as a whole was rapidly depleting, as the strange machines did much the same as the strange Festum, constantly vanishing and reappearing, Festum icons vanishing in their wake, routing the swarm before it could continue any further into the base.

Narain wasn't entirely sure what to think about that, but for the moment, he settled on grateful.

+++

Assimilation was interesting. The target was consumed, utterly, on all levels. Thoughts, memories, emotions, physical form, abilities... Even the very consciousness. Every Festum I assimilated gave me access to more information, and made me just a little bit more powerful. Not too much, but after having eaten a couple, it was noticeable already.

Omnomnom!

I touched another Festum, and promptly, quickly consumed it. I shuffled through its memories, noted that there wasn't anything useful, and moved on to the next.

I teleported again, and again and again and again, leaving a trail of shattered assimilation crystals where I went. My mechs had shifted goals, now delaying Festum and keeping them tied up for me to consume later. I was still capturing all the ones I could- mostly because it meant I could consume them at my leisure.

Ooh, that one looks pretty cool. Teleport, reach out- hey hey, it's fast. It had ducked underneath my arm, and was currently backing up, the sword that was its arm shifting towards me. Purple light gathered, a Worm Sphere forming at the tip.

How about no?

I teleported again, this time into far closer range. My hand was scant nanometers from its body, and I wasted no time in running my arm through its back, grasping its core. I reached inside of its mind, snapped the connection with the hivemind, and then began assimilating it. It vanished in an explosion of assimilation crystals mere moments later -Ooh, neat abilities-, and I quickly moved on to the next-

There you are.

I found the centaur fish.

Okay, my mechs can go back to killing shit. I have to hit that thing.

I vanished, appearing beside it. I thrust my arms forwards-

And a purple barrier flashed into existence, my fists running into it and stopping.

Its head turned, and it looked at me.

It really looked weird. That damn face.

I felt it press against my mind, using its considerable psychic power to try and read my thoughts. It took very little effort to rebuff it, as I was far more experienced in psychic warfare than it.

I teleported as it swung at me, its arm passing through the spot I had been. Its shield vanished from sight the moment I stopped touching it.

Hmm.

That was a fairly strong shield. I'd either have to use a lot of force, or find some other way to bypass it.

I felt a burst of fear and confusion from the Humans at the base. Why... Oh, Human Army had declared ROE Alpha.

What was ROE Alpha again?

I teleported again, appearing behind the centaur fish. A Worm Sphere appeared in my hands, and I raised my arms towards my enemy. Purple arrowheads, in actuality re-shaped Worm Spheres, streamed out, but all he did was raise his arm towards me, fingers splaying out.

That damn shield flickered in and out of view as my arrows detonated, Worm Sphere briefly appearing as each one hit, before fading.

Okay, mind reading, ROE Alpha... Basically, directive to destroy all Festum, disable IFF target locking to enable friendly fire, and finally also destroy all targeted beings. The target was... the entire island?

Oh, they're going to nuke it.

That's not very nice.

Well, I'll just shoot down the nukes, no problem-

That was a fairly strong shield. I'd either have to use a lot of force, or find some other way to bypass it.

Aha. Opportunity.

I sent my defensive units backwards, teleporting them into the local base. Scan around... -Huh, that girl is carrying a Festum core in a shoe- All people located. Whole bunch of transport planes here, ready to go. Enough to evacuate everybody?

Just. It'd be a tight fit. Anything else I can dump people in?

Whole bunch of boats and subs here. Much better.

Lock signatures, begin teleporting people into the vehicles. Distribute supplies between them all... There. Ready to go.

Now, assign units to vehicles, synchronise teleporters... Coordinates: Far enough to not get hit by the nukes. Direction didn't matter so long as it wasn't here.

Dodge the centaur-fish as it tries to attack again... Teleport spam, keep shooting at it. No good. Shield is still there.

Oh well.

The Human Army bombers were on the way. Actually, they had already been on the way, even before ROE Alpha had been declared. I had a feeling there'd be a lot of radio communication right now, if I hadn't already evacuated everyone.

And... they're deploying nukes. Those missiles are actually pretty fast, and have quite the range on them- Irrelevant.

I sent off three offensive units, one for each missile. They teleported there, grabbed the missiles, interfaced with the systems, overrode the systems, and inputted new coordinates for each missile; a triangular shape around this Festum, fifty meters away for each point. With that done, they promptly teleported back, re-aligned so the missiles were now facing their targets, before letting go.

And now, one last set of teleportation orders: My units, not here.

Suck on this.

Not half a second later, the nukes detonated.

153

+++

The fireball was intense, massive. Each missile was easily in the hundreds of megatons range, and I'd just dropped all three straight on top of this asshole. The radiation would make the entire island uninhabitable for years, but the sheer amount of energy released by these nukes had already glassed a very large portion of the land.

And yet...

I could still sense that Festum.

Anger, rage, hate. Pain. This Festum was feeling all four, and it stuck out like a bonfire in the dark to me.

There was a thrumming pulse, and the smoke was forced away, giving me a clear view of the Festum. It was missing its tail, its arms, one of its legs, its head, and most of its upper body. Only the lower body was still present, and it was a burned, angry and pulsating red, extremely little of the golden flesh left, limping on three legs.

It was hurt -oh so very hurt- but it was still alive.

I had to admire its durability. Few things could take energies like that and actually walk away from it.

But just because I admired its durability didn't mean I wasn't going to ruthlessly capitalize on its injured state.

My mechs appeared, all of them teleporting to my Festum. Shields surrounded them, protecting them from the immense heat and equally intense radiation.

A moment later, all of them were suddenly next to the Festum. My offence units struck at it, Luger Lances colliding with the shield. My defence units fired their lasers, slicing- but that too was blocked by the shield.

My capture units appeared around it, all of them simultaneously activating their Core Amplifiers and Manipulator Devices. I struck at the Festum's mind- and its shield wavered as I did. Luger Lances pierced its body, even as lasers burnt and cut the flesh.

My Festum moved in, grappling the enemy. I shot mental lances of pain through its mind, disrupted its thoughts, did everything I could to debilitate it-

And yet, it still tried to resist my assimilation. My crystals spread over its body, but they were slow, impeded.

It was trying to buy itself time. With what was no doubt an incredible act of will, it focused through the pain, through the disrupted thoughts; and created a number of Worm Spheres on its flesh. I moved my units back, all of them except my Festum. The Worm Spheres coalesced, forming into a single larger sphere.

It was trying to escape.

I pushed harder, spreading my crystals further- but, too late.

The sphere vanished, and with it, the Festum's Core. The rest of the body, that which wasn't consumed by the Worm Sphere, fell to the ground, the golden glow fading.

I might have been annoyed at its escape- except, it hadn't really escaped me.

It had gotten out of my grasp, yes, but it hadn't escaped. It had fled- 834 kilometres away, onto an island in which my Hub Network had already spread.

Severely injured, missing even more of its body, and in quite a lot of pain. I knew exactly where it was- and unfortunately for it:

834 Kilometres was within the range of my teleporters.

A mere second later, my units slammed into it again. Its shield didn't stop me this time, and my units pierced its body with lances and lasers, taking care to avoid its core. My Festum struck, tackling it and gripping it tightly.

"No Escape." I told it. "Not this time."

Again, I struck its mind. I held nothing back, and forced my way in, once again disrupting it. The Hub Network began building more Core Amplifiers and Manipulator Devices, quickly adding onto the force arrayed against the Festum.

Assimilation crystals began spreading over it, slow at first, but then speeding up as I devoted more and more force into disrupting its mind, leaving it less and less able to defend itself. The flesh wriggled and writhed, but it was no use. The Luger Lances kept it in place, and the lasers scythed off any attempted new growths.

My crystals spread, further and further. The information I was getting was highly interesting, and both Little1 and Anastasia were analysing it.

I pushed harder, digging further and further into its memories. There was so much, in comparison to the other Festum I had assimilated anyway. The emotion, too. The anger, the rage, the hate, the pain.

The fear.

"Do you fear me?" I asked. I knew the answer, of course. Fear was such a light word for the emotions it held towards me. "You're right to do so." I told it.

I was assimilating it after all. Taking everything that made it what it was, and making it mine. It understood that.

"This is what assimilation feels like." I kept speaking. "Congratulations. Now you can understand how the Humans you assimilated felt."

The crystals spread even further. There was so little of it left to consume.

"Don't worry." I assured it. "The pain will stop once you're a part of me."

The last of it was covered, finally.

Now then.

"Give me your life." I whispered.

The assimilation crystals chimed.

And then, they shattered.

+++

It did not have a specific name. No Mir did- at least, not ones they had given themselves.

This one was unique. It was a fragment of the North Pole Mir, destroyed in the climactic battle four years ago. It, and a number of other fragments, had come to hate Humanity, and had thus begun attempting to destroy them. This was not the misguided attempts at fixing Humanity the Festum had previously been attempting, no.

This was out and out war. One or the other would die, and if these Mir had their way, it was going to be Humanity that suffered.

Well, Humanity had already suffered. The memories of the assimilated Humans had been just as much of a help determining what was actually going on here as the memories of the Festum.

So many memories... More than that, even. Thoughts, personalities, minds.

Human and Festum alike.

This Mir... was driven by hatred. The extent of its hatred was such that it forced the members of its swarm into fighting, even those who hadn't wanted to fight. Those ones were few and far between, but they did exist.

Or, they had. There had been a grand total of three who didn't want to fight in that battle. One had died in the opening strike of my offensive units. Another had been shot down by the defenders of the Big Island base. The third had died with the nuclear strike on the Mir.

That was... a shame. I had been directly responsible for the deaths of two... well, innocents isn't quite the right word, but...

Regrettable nonetheless. If I had known about their existence earlier, I would have at least tried to...

I made a mistake. My error.

Oh well. Best not to get caught up on it. Something to consider for all future engagements. I'd actually check whether or not they were being press-ganged before assimilating or killing them.

I'd made it once. It would not happen twice.

Still, at least now I had an idea where to start. 

154

+++

That Festum -fuck it, he's Centaur now- had assimilated a lot of Humans. So many had become a part of it- and now, they had become a part of me. I'd remarked on that not long ago, but...

Thoughts, memories, consciousness, their very existences.

It was, in special circumstances, possible to come back from assimilation. There were two cases that I knew of from the series. Soushi Minashiro had been one, and the other had Kouyou Kasugai.

Soushi had been assimilated by a Festum named Idun, who had subsequently been assimilated by Kazuki piloting the Fafner known as Mark Sein. In the movie, Heaven and Earth, Soushi's existence had been preserved by a unique Festum known as Misao Kurusu- basically a Sphinx-Type that was capable of taking Human form. Soushi eventually came back when Misao had defied his Mir, thrown himself in the path of a nuke, and left Soushi in the cockpit of the Fafner known as Mark Nicht.

Kouyou had undergone partial assimilation, which he eventually recovered from, though not without being transformed into a Festum himself.

Both were unique cases. Soushi had his existence protected, and Kouyou hadn't been completely assimilated. The Humans who Centaur had assimilated were neither.

Centaur certainly hadn't tried to protect them. Their minds had... well, 'degraded' from exposure to the Festum Hivemind. Humans were never made to deal with something like that; never made to deal with being absorbed into a hivemind on such a fundamental level.

But, at least partially, they were still there.

And, just maybe, I could help them.

+++

I recalled my units, sending them around my territory. My Festum, however, appeared in the base where I had taken it over.

Assimilation Crystals spread, consuming its form. They shattered, leaving only the core itself. I moved it to the ground, planting it in the earth.

Attempting to restore all those who had been assimilated was going to be a rather lengthy venture. Their minds were damaged, but that was something I could fix. Lost bodies were nothing, I could remake them.

The crystals spread out further, at first jagged, but then shifting to a smoother structure as it continued growing. I created a floor of assimilation crystals, and once I had encompassed a significant area, I moved on to the next step of the plan.

The base grew upwards, forming into a pyramid shape. The growing crystals were once again rough and jagged, but I smoothed them out, leaving a single large, light blue pyramid structure. Hallways appeared at each side of the pyramid, leading into the inner chamber, which was large, open and cavernous. I'd say that it was big enough to fit multiple Fafners, but really, I could fit an Ares Titan or three in here if I wanted.

More crystalline structures appeared as I shaped the inside into something that resembled the red crystal room from the movie- though, of course, I went with blue as the major colour rather than red.

Yes, this will work... Now then, which minds were the least degraded?

The ones most recently assimilated, and the ones with the strongest wills.

Right, them first.

The crystals in the wall pulsed, glowing with energy. Golden-blue, it coalesced together, forming matter, expanding as I pushed more and more energy into it. The matter warped further, and, slowly, began to take the shape of a body...

+++

Centaur had been capable of so many things. More than it had used against me, actually.

Mostly because it hadn't really had the opportunity. I hadn't managed to break its shield with just my Festum, and it had focused its power on defence after I dropped the nukes on it.

Regardless, Centaur had a number of abilities that I found interesting. It could generate and manipulate vast amounts of heat and fire, and was capable of using that ability to generate massive blasts of energy, fiery tornadoes, and even melt the area around it.

Further, Centaur's assimilation ability was even more advanced than the average Festum. It didn't need physical contact with a being in order to assimilate them, it only needed to be able to contact their mind. It likely would have ended badly for me if it had tried assimilating me, but the havoc I played with its mind had done a good job of disrupting that.

As a fragment of the North Pole Mir, Centaur had also been capable of creating and controlling lesser Festum in vast quantities. It accompanied its swarm when it attacked Humanity, assimilating and destroying everything it could.

Now, all those abilities were mine- and not just for my Festum, either. Little1 and Anastasia had looked over its memories, its powers, and had done their best to replicate them.

They'd succeeded fairly well, actually. Making new Festum was an involved and lengthy process without another Festum to 'catalyze' it, but it was doable, and they had already begun mass manufacturing of Festum for study and examination. Centaur's ability to manipulate heat was something we could already do with our own psychic powers, but the scale at which it could work was impressive- we would have required augmentation devices, or lots of units in the area in order to do that.

The photon-crystalline structure of a Festum's core... It was easily one of the most efficient channels of psychic energy I had ever come across. Unit of volume to unit of volume, it eclipsed even a Core Amplifier in how much energy it could channel.

Assimilation... Okay, that one was limited to Festum, because that only came about as a product of how they worked. Still, advanced assimilation was something any Festum we created could inherit if we so wished.

I was likely going to make extreme use of that last one in particular. The other Mir fragments had assimilated Humans, and if I could assimilate them, I could at least make an attempt to bring back the Humans.

It was also likely that the other Mir fragments had developed their own abilities, much like Centaur's control of fire and heat. If I assimilated them, then I could get those abilities, and... well, given the scale of what Centaur could do, any abilities they had were likely to be very powerful.

I definitely didn't mind grabbing more technology, and, likewise, I certainly won't mind grabbing new abilities from the other Festum.

Just needed a little bit of time to set up before I can start hunting the other Mir fragments. Time to build a swarm of Festum, time for my Hub Networks to spread across the planet, and time to find out what happened to Tatsumiya Island.

Time, time, time. 

155

+++

She coughed-

She coughed.

She jerked. Her head hit crystal glass, sending a dull throb of pain through her. Her hand came up, but she froze when she felt her fingers touch skin.

Her eyes opened-

She screamed.

The sound was muted, dull.

The blank helmet of a Sphinx-type Festum greeted her.

Her scream cut off as she regained control of herself.

Analyse the situation. Her training spoke. Remain calm.

The Festum -which was blue, she suddenly noticed- did nothing. She examined herself, and suddenly couldn't help but notice that she was floating in a liquid, naked as the day she was born.

Liquid?

Her fingers rushed to her throat, she-

She could breathe. Somehow.

She looked around.

She was... inside of a transparent blue crystal. And she wasn't alone, either. More crystals were present along the wall, humanoid silhouettes inside. A number of Festum, all blue Sphinx-Types, were also present, hovering around in front of the crystals.

Movement from the Sphinx in front of her pulled her attention to it. It reached up, touching the crystal she was contained in; and delicately plucked it from the wall, carrying her in one hand to the center of the room, where a pillar of light connected the ceiling to the floor.

A replacement crystal grew from where hers had been removed, she noticed. The Sphinx carried her crystal to the center of the room, pushing her into the pillar of light before letting go.

She didn't drop, as she had halfway expected. Instead, the crystal containing her descended carefully, slowly.

She passed through the floor like it wasn't even there, and beheld a smaller chamber, though still massive. There was another Festum here, larger than the Sphinxes above, and it flitted about the room, seemingly examining crystal formations.

It turned to her, and she couldn't help but shake as it did. It was the same light blue colour as the rest, but it was still terrifying, and its size reminded her that she was among a Festum hive, contained in a crystal, at the non-existent mercy of the Festum themselves.

Its hand came up, and a light blue beam passed over her. She froze as it did, but she felt nothing, no sensation from the beam at all. The hand twisted, moving as if to cup her crystal, but stopping before it actually touched.

It moved its hand to the side, and her crystal went with it, hovering above the Festum's hand. She floated towards another hallway, which was far too small for the other Festum. Its finger moved as if to push her further in, but once again, it didn't actually touch her.

She floated down the hallway at a sedate pace regardless.

Crystal walls opened up in front of her as the crystal moved, which closed as it passed.

Finally, she reached her destination, a small room. The crystal holding her came to a stop in the air, and then began to sink further into the ground, phasing through it like it wasn't there.

This time, however, she didn't go with it. Her feet touched the ground, and the crystal continued sliding through her as it vanished into the ground.

She took a deep breath when it was gone completely, checking over herself to make sure that nothing... anything had happened.

She was still naked, but... well, she wasn't glowing gold or covered in assimilation crystals, so... That was a thing.

Just to make sure, she promptly bit her thumb, and tasted blood a few moments later. A stabbing sensation of pain only confirmed it.

Still Human.

Which was strange, because she distinctly remembered being assimilated by a Grendel-Type that had leapt on her while she was trying to evacuate some civilians.

Swallowing, she moved forwards. There was a door -a plain, wooden door- in front of her.

She... Okay, exactly nothing made sense any more.

She opened the door.

A fairly large room greeted her. The floor was carpeted, there were three more doors off to the side, and there was also rows and rows and rows of clothes throughout the place. Both civilian and military, every design and style she'd ever seen in her life was present on them, and then some.

She had only a single thing to say to that, which she devised with the totality of her mental capacity at that moment.

"What."

+++

Every style and theme had been present, big and small, prude and risqué alike.

She'd settled for the former, tracking down a set of cargo pants, a shirt, a jacket to go over the shirt, some socks, and a set of good boots which had been present alongside what could only be the single most impractical set of high-heels in existence.

She shuddered. Just looking at them had made her feet ache with phantom pain. Whatever mind had spawned the design for fifteen inch heels must surely have been every bit as cruel as the Festum.

She'd checked the other rooms, too. One had been a bathroom, another had been a room containing a series of stalls, and the third had led out to a hallway. In the bathroom, there had been a package containing band-aids, one of which was now wrapped around her thumb.

Now clothed, she proceeded down the hallway. The walls seemed to be made out of brick, and were smooth to the touch. The floor was wooden boards, which were smooth and shiny.

At the end of the hallway was another door, which she quickly opened.

She blinked as she took in the sights. It was a living area, a generously large one at that. Well lit, there was a depression on one side of the room where the floor dropped slightly, a couch arrayed in front of a TV. A large kitchen was also present, with a large cupboard that was currently open. A delicately carved and polished wooden table was present in the center of the room, behind which was another set of doors.

The cupboard door closed, revealing a woman in a blue dress holding a number of jars. She turned- and promptly caught sight of her.

For a moment, the two stared at each other.

"Another Human?!"

156

+++

"So, what's your name?"

"Karin." She said.

The other woman nodded.

"Drich." There was a moment's pause. "And, yeah, strange name, I know."

Karin decided not mention it. "How long have you been here?"

"'bout three days." Drich frowned. "I was the first one down here- aside from the Festum, anyway. You're the first other Human I've seen down here."

"Nobody else?" Karin asked.

She got a shrug in return. "If there's anybody here, I haven't seen 'em." She walked back to the cupboard again, opening the door. "You hungry?"

Karin's stomach growled. Despite herself, she blushed.

Drich's head appeared from behind the door for a moment, looking somewhat amused. "I'll take that as a yes." The head vanished again. "Anyway, what do you want? This place is surprisingly well stocked with food."

Karin stood up, moving over to the cupboard.

It was much deeper than she was expecting. The door hid the fact that it was a walk-in, and that there was a freezer inside.

"There's meat in there." Drich noted, looking over a row of spices. "You can have as much as you want, the Festum just restock everything when you're not looking."

Festum.

"Do you know anything about them?" She asked, her voice light and seemingly carefree. Here was a person with far more information than here, and seemingly also a civilian.

"Other than the obvious?" Her temporary companion asked. "Not really. Only been here for three days after all, though I have wandered around a bit."

"Oh?" Better to invite them to reveal information.

"Yeah. That second door on the left over there leads to an elevator. Takes you straight up aboveground." Drich picked up a few spices, and Karin quickly selected a steak. "'course, up there is where all the Festum are, and I really don't feel like wandering around where all the Festum are, whether they're acting friendly or not."

The two of them walked out, Karin following. Drich moved to a stove, quickly turning it on and dialing up the heat.

"Friendly?" Karin questioned again.

"We're not dead." Drich pointed out. "How often does that happen when you meet Festum?"

Karin had to concede, that was a good point. She grabbed a bottle of oil, putting a generous coating on a frying pan, before placing the steaks on top of that.

Drich took it and put it on top of the stove, letting the steak start to cook.

"How big is this place?" Karin continued.

"Fairly big, actually." Drich gestured over her shoulder, pointing at one of the doors from before. "Leftmost door leads to a hallway which leads to more rooms like this. Second door on the left is the elevator, like I said. Third door leads to bedrooms, and the fourth leads to showers and toilets. The layout's a bit confusing, but this place could easily hold quite a lot of people."

Drich twisted, looking back at Karin. "Also, I'm fairly certain this place is getting bigger when nobody's looking. That leftmost door wasn't there two days ago. Kind of creepy, actually."

+++

Which, of course, had been my intention.

I continued speaking animatedly with Karin, trying to make her feel comfortable. My avatar had been designed for the task; Karin was more comfortable with women than she was with men, so... yeah.

She was the very first person who had been successfully brought back- mostly because her mind had been the most intact, a combination of strong will, and the short time she'd been assimilated.

It had happened during the Centaur's attack, actually. A Grendel-Type found her, and... Yeah. The civilians she'd been protecting had at least gotten away, but Karin herself had quickly been consumed.

Still, it had taken a full three days to restore her completely. I was making progress on everybody Centaur and his swarm had assimilated, but still...

It'd be years before the worst of them recovered at the rate I was going.

Oh well. I had the time.

Another couple hours, and I should be able to get a few more people restored, which would provide some company for Karin. And my avatar too, but that wasn't something that my avatar actually needed.

No doubt some of them would try to leave, but there wasn't anywhere for them to go. This entire base had been converted, and it had been fairly isolated to begin with. Sure, I could send them off to places, but if the NUN became aware of the fact that they had previously been assimilated, then chances were they would try something stupid.

They could leave when I found a safe place for them, which, between the NUN, the Human Army, and the angry Festum swarms running around, was unlikely to appear any time soon.

But, in terms of actual world events, things were going pretty well.

For me, that is. Nobody else was enjoying what was going on.

My Hub Networks had spread over the planet, and I had subsequently gained access to... quite a bit of information.

Some of it interesting, some of it worrying...

Actually, a lot of it was worrying.

But, I'll get to that later and start off with the interesting stuff.

First, the Humans that I had saved, the ones I teleported away from Hawaii, that is, were doing pretty well. They had taken everything I'd left them and had gone to a different, nearby base. There was a little bit of grumbling, but the NUN was currently pre-occupied.

Second, that girl that I had mentioned before, the one who had a Festum core in her shoe.

Turns out, that wasn't just a Festum core. Thanks to my assimilation of Centaur, a second look at it actually had me recognize it as what it was:

It was a fragment of the North Pole Mir, one which held no hostility to Humans to boot.

I was going to be making very certain that particular Mir fragment stayed safe. There were precious few Festum that were non-hostile to Humanity, and I'd much rather that they stayed that way.

Those were, unfortunately, the only things I'd discovered that didn't, on some level, worry me.

Now, here's the worrying stuff.

157

+++

First off, the NUN was not as bad as I had thought.

It was worse. It was so much worse.

Thanks to my Hub Network, I had access to what was effectively all of their databanks. Every bit of information...

I learned a few things.

First: the NUN had developed a third Salvator model Fafner. They called it Mark Raison, and it was every bit as powerful as Mark Sein and Mark Nicht, the other two Salvator models and resident super-robots of the setting.

Even more so than the regular Fafner, anyway.

Mark Raison was designed to be able to link together with a Festum- yes, one Festum. A specific Festum, codenamed Vagrant.

Second: Vagrant.

Just... Vagrant.

Oh boy, where did I even begin on Vagrant?

Okay, the beginning:

I have previously mentioned that Japan built three islands, of which Tatsumiya Island was one. The other two were known as Horai Island and Watatsumi Island. NUN called them D-Island, Avalon, and Atlantis, respectively.

D-Island, Tatsumiya Island, was still active, though currently hidden. Avalon had been destroyed some time ago, its self-destruct systems activated by the residents of Tatsumiya Island.

Atlantis, however... Atlantis had not fallen to the Festum, nor had it escaped notice.

No, the NUN located it, and did as the NUN did- killing everybody on the Island, leaving it mostly disabled, and taking its Mir for their own use.

There were a few uses. One for something known as Puppets, and the other, of course, being Vagrant.

The Atlantis Mir was enslaved, and used to create and control Vagrant. With Vagrant, they could direct other Festum, sending information to them, and generally push them to do acts. It wasn't outright control, but it was a rather significant influence nonetheless.

Vagrant was useful even outside of that purpose. See, Vagrant hovered in orbit, acting as a satellite for the NUN, which effectively allowed them satellite communications when nobody else in the world could, and also enabled them to spy upon other entities.

Vagrant's uses didn't end there. Mark Raison, as it was capable of linking together with the Atlantis Mir Core and Vagrant, could also thus draw upon its power. Vagrant had a particularly useful ability, as the NUN had discovered:

Vagrant could assimilate things using light.

That was an ability that sounded incredibly useful to me. Needless to say, I wanted it.

It was, unfortunately, not as simple I wished it to be in order to get it. Vagrant was under the control of the NUN, as was the Atlantis Core.

I didn't simply go off and assimilate it in order to get its abilities, solely because the Atlantis Mir had suffered under the NUN. It was enslaved, forced to do as it did.

I wanted to free it.

It was, perhaps, not the best of ideas. I fully realized that the Atlantis Mir would very likely want revenge against the NUN, but still... If the Atlantis Mir proved to be open minded, then maybe it would limit its revenge solely to those responsible for its imprisonment and enslavement.

But, if it had learned the same hatred that Centaur had... Well, it wouldn't stop then and there. It would continue onwards until all of Humanity died, or it did.

I wasn't going to deal with it until I had enough forces on hand to make absolutely certain that I would emerge victorious over it.

Currently, that plan was taking the form of a thousand highly developed Festum, each of which would be just as powerful as Centaur had been- if not even greater. I called them Envoy-Types, and they were basically an upscaled version of my original Festum, about as tall as Centaur had been.

Creating them was taking a significant amount of time, and an even more significant amount of energy. Their cores would be larger, more powerful, and more complex than any Centaur had created- hell, more so than Centaur himself. Each would be a Mir unto themselves, and they would all be hosting my consciousness, synched together with each other, and the rest of my network.

Each would be a conduit of my psychic energies every bit as powerful as a full sized Core Amplifier, and then some. Each would be able to replicate any bit of my technology on demand, ready to adapt to anything that it encountered. Each one would have powerful assimilation abilities, as great as I could make them- Surpassing even Centaur's own ability to assimilate, without question.

At the rate their cores were growing, it would take months for them to develop completely. That was with my original Festum catalysing their growth, and the lesser Festum I had spawned hurrying it along.

How unfortunate that I couldn't just throw more resources at it to speed things up. The photon crystalline cores were easy enough, but the psychic structure, much less so. They were grown as much as they were built.

I couldn't skip it, either, because despite the fact that the cores were powerful channels for psychic energies, it was the Festum psychic component that enabled assimilation. Sure, I could use the core to do psychic stuff, but if I wanted to assimilate things, I'd need the Festum psychic structure in place.

The time investment was much like Resource Cores, really, but the difference in scale was extreme.

But then again, so was the difference in results.

Oh well.

By the time I finished, I would have one hell of an army. More than enough to find and assimilate every hostile Mir fragment, and more than powerful enough hold their own against anything an enemy tried.

But until then, I needed an army I could actually use just in case.

Luckily, I had a ready-made solution. I had the ability to produce an effectively endless supply of Festum cores of any nature given enough time- and thanks to my invasion of the NUN systems, I had the designs of Fafners I could implement such cores in.

Including, I should note again, the designs of Mark Raison.

One of the three super-robots in the setting, which I was capable of mass producing all the necessary parts of.

The plan practically wrote itself from there, didn't it?

I was going to take Mark Raison's designs, upgrade them as much as I could, alter it into new forms, specialist and generalist alike, mass produce those altered designs, and fit them with Festum cores of my own making.

So, while my Super-Festum Army of Doom was being produced, I'd just use a Super-Fafner Army of Doom until it was ready to go and stomp some faces in.

I began humming to myself.

Let's have a bit of fun, shall we?

Fun for me, that is. I sincerely doubted that anybody else would enjoy it. 

158

+++

The next few months passed slowly. Things were, as far as this world went, pretty calm.

Actually, they were very calm. The number of Festum attacks had been, to say the least, low.

Unnaturally low. A grand total of three attacks in different locations, all of which had contained very few Festum.

All of which I had intercepted before they actually made it to their targets. Two had come from the same swarm, but the third had been under the command of a different Mir fragment than the other two.

I had assimilated the members of all three attacks. Subsequently, I had gained a small bit of knowledge on the two swarms, including the controlling Mir fragments.

One was a giant mosquito thing, and... I'm honestly not sure how to describe the other. The NUN was aware of both, calling the mosquito thing Crawler, and the other Aviator.

Why the fuck they called the mosquito thing Crawler was something I hadn't yet figured out. It could fly- it had wings for fuck's sake.

Side note- Centaur was known as Roadrunner by the NUN. I'd learned that shortly after spreading my Hub Network into the NUN headquarters.

I didn't really give a damn either way.

Collectively, Centaur/Roadrunner, Aviator, and Crawler were known as Azazel-Type Festum. Three others existed, which were Vagrant, Floater, and Walker.

I suppose that, technically, my own Festum would be classed as an Azazel-Type. The thousand Envoy-Types I was producing would definitely count.

With the Festum pretty silent, the rest of the world went on. The group of Humans I had saved moved up to Srinagar, taking with them the Mir fragment.

That Mir Fragment had, over the course of the past few months, grown into a massive crystalline tree, not unlike the Festum forest I had found before.

It was, thankfully, living in harmony with the Humans I had saved. They had built up an entire city around it, and enshrined the Mir itself. They named it Ashoka.

Ashoka, in turn, provided them with a degree of safety, allowing them to use wide-area radio broadcasts without catching the attention of the Festum, on top of providing them with Festum cores that they needed to produce Fafners. Further, some individuals had gained the ability to communicate with Festum, Mir included.

They were called Esperantos. That girl from before, the one who had carried Ashoka in the shoe, Emery Almond apparently, was one such Esperanto.

Of course, not everything was sunshine and rainbows with them. The NUN had noticed that the group lived in harmony with a Mir, and the upper echelons of the NUN were already making plans to wipe them from the face of the Earth.

Living with Festum? Can't have that, no...

Morons.

At least they were focusing on the other, actually hostile Festum for the moment, rather than other Humans.

That was... something, I guess. Still, the NUN was preparing to do something stupid, and that was annoying since no doubt I would be the one who had to deal with their shit.

I'd deal with it when the time came.

In other news, Tatsumiya Island. Finding the place was tricky- mostly because my Hub Network had passed underneath the ocean, and Tatsumiya itself had some fairly comprehensive stealth systems. I'd found it by tracking anomalies in water movement, which Tatsumiya caused quite a lot of, owing to its massive size.

I found a consistent anomaly, and then scanned it with some more advanced stuff. The stealth that it used was good, but not 'fool my dedicated sensors' good. Admittedly, it would hide the island from most forms of detection that were otherwise present on this planet, and I'd give them points for that.

I left the island alone for the moment. While I was interested in it, and what it contained, I wasn't so interested that I was going to rush in and check it out.

It could wait until later, when there was no longer a bunch of asshole Festum and asshole Humans around to try and fuck it up.

There was one last thing that I had been keeping my eye on.

I'd mentioned it before, when I had first arrived; the giant crystal coming towards this planet. Much like Ashoka, a second check had been all I needed to learn what it actually was.

It was a Mir, much like the North Pole Mir. The NUN called it Altair.

Altair was powerful. An unbroken, unfragmented Mir- how could it be anything but?

Most importantly, it was not currently hostile towards Humanity. It was not like the Festum on this planet- it had not assimilated any Humans, had not learned their emotions and their ways of thought.

It was a clean slate.

And that was both an opportunity, and a worry.

Worry, because if it learnt the hatred of the Festum hostile to Humanity, and became hostile, it would wipe them out. Opportunity, because if it learnt peace and coexistence from the Festum amicable to Humanity, it would save them.

That gave me a time frame to work off. I had a couple months to prepare for Altair's arrival, and in that couple months, I had to either ensure that Altair would not be hostile to Humanity, or that I could destroy Altair if it became so.

Not the most difficult of tasks. I was already halfway there with my army of Festum coming along.

Hmm.

Making Altair non-hostile would be easier if I had the help of the other Mir fragments. It'd be even easier if the Azazel-Types weren't around to try and fuck things up. Removing them from the playing field would also lead to Humanity being safer in the long term.

If I absolutely had to, I could communicate with it myself. It wouldn't be too difficult to get one of my Festum to it- but I'd rather save that for a last resort. Better to have some support for this.

Now then... A couple months to hunt down the remaining Azazel-Types, screw over the Human Army, and get the assistance of the friendly Mir fragments.

No trouble. 

159

+++

The Azazel-Types were evidently much better at hiding than I'd expected.

I had no idea where any of them were, aside from, of course, Vagrant.

Weeks, and they hadn't shown up. Sure, I wasn't exactly scouring the world here, but still- they hadn't shown up at all. My Festum army was ready to go, yet they just hadn't appeared.

Ugh...

I had an entire damn army and nothing to use it on! It was frustrating!

But, enough of my whinging.

There was an interesting thing happening, something that might actually prompt an attack from the Festum.

Specifically, a Human Army transport was currently flying away from Srinagar. Aboard were a number of Fafners, and their respective pilots. Also aboard was the general previously in charge of the Hawaii base, Narain Wiseman, and, surprise surprise, Emery Almond.

Whatever the general and an Esperanto were doing was bound to prove interesting- and, hey, what did you know, I had a whole bunch of Festum free.

I took one of my Envoy-Types and sent it off towards the transport.

If shit went down, I wanted to be nearby when it happened.

+++

The transport was heading in the general direction of Tatsumiya Island. I could sense Emery herself reaching out telepathically, searching the area.

I kept myself -My Festum- hidden. My psychic energies tightly contained, my mental signature suppressed as much as possible. So long as I didn't try to actively read her mind, she'd never know I was here.

Not that it prevented me from listening in anyway. Surface thoughts, really.

Still, that was enough to tell me what they were after.

They were looking for Tatsumiya Island. Apparently, it was the request of Ashoka.

Ashoka, who had told the Humans it existed alongside about Altair.

Hmm...

Interesting.

+++

As an aside, I had totally forgotten about Miwa.

Miwa Hino was a very special and equally young girl. She was the first child born of natural conception on Tatsumiya Island, and, further, she was also capable of understanding and communicating with Festum.

She was about three or four years old, just to note.

Miwa was what the people of Srinagar would call an Esperanto. Emery was also an Esperanto. Both were telepathic. Both were also young girls, though Emery was the elder of the pair.

They had made very fast friends when Emery had come close enough to Tatsumiya Island for the two to actually talk. Emery was subsequently leading the Human Army Transport towards Miwa, and thus Tatsumiya Island. It'd be a fair bit of time before the transport arrived, but the two were set to meet.

Which, naturally, meant that I was keeping an eye out. If there was any time for an attack, sometime soon would be one of the better options.

+++

Apparently, Tatsumiya Island was holding some training drills or something. There were a pair of jets in the air long before the transport came into detection range, and long before they were actually detected.

It was only shortly after the transport was detected that the Festum made their move. Their presence was sudden, and both Miwa and Emery reacted as it revealed itself.

This Festum did not want them to meet.

A Worm Sphere appeared in the sky behind the transport, expanding rapidly. The two jets swerved to avoid it, both of them successful.

I felt Miwa's worry, even as Emery attempted to calm her down. She was reaching out telepathically, looking for help, and I didn't doubt that Miwa was throwing a fit on Tatsumiya Island.

Still, it didn't matter too much-

I felt someone brush against my mind.

I recognized it very shortly as Miwa.

She sensed me?

Even when I was hiding my presence- granted, I was a Festum, but still; she sensed me?!

She's three. How the actual fuck did she detect me?

I felt Emery look, also suddenly aware of me thanks to Miwa.

Damn it, Miwa.

"Please!" And now she's talking to me. "Save Emery!"

I was going to do that anyway.

I sent a pulse of confirmation to her, and, gently, pushed her away from my mind.

Well, fuck. There goes my stealth.

With both Miwa and Emery now aware of my presence, and their minds being far less protected than my own, the Festum would become aware of me in short order, if they weren't aware already.

Damn it, Miwa.

Okay. The situation isn't unsalvageable. I'll just... act openly.

Being able to get the drop on my enemy would have been nice, but I could deal with not having it.

I held still, ready to act. The other Festum I had created were also ready, just in case it turned out to be more powerful than I was expecting.

I watched the Worm Sphere, though I also kept an eye on the transport and the two jets. All three were heading away- towards Tatsumiya Island.

The cloaking shield was deactivating at this very moment. Looked kind of cool, actually. A sphere formed, then began disintegrating from the top down, leaving only a partial ring after that- and island itself visible.

Hmm.

Actually, that was a nice aesthetic. Little1 and Anastasia were already beginning to construct another planet with it in mind.

Heh.

Wind swirled around the Worm Sphere, a hurricane of water and air. Purple light shone through the twisting column, which intensified as the Festum came closer and closer to materializing, and the Worm Sphere itself increased in mass. It was fairly large already, and it was still going up.

Whatever Festum was coming was going to be a big one. Hopefully big enough for me to sink my teeth into.

It took slightly over three minutes for the Festum to materialize. The glow became massively brighter just before it did, briefly eclipsing the sun and painting the entire area purple for a moment.

The hurricane vanished as it did, the storm clouds above and the maelstrom below both fading as the Worm Sphere pulsed, and collapsed to reveal...

Nothing? 

160

+++

No... Not nothing.

My eyes shifted over to the Human aircraft. There was a Festum moving towards them, a type that I had never seen before. Humanoid, but with bulky arms and legs, and an asymmetrical face.

It was far too small to have been what generated that Worm Sphere. Not nearly massive enough, not nearly powerful enough.

I suppose that it didn't matter too much. Either way, I was going to assimilate it.

I moved. The water around me rippled and burst into the air as I surfaced, moving at hypersonic speeds.

The other Festum didn't even have the chance to react as I slammed into it, the fingers of my right hand wrapping around its chest. I carried it away as I moved through the air, assimilation crystals already beginning to spread over its body.

I did not immediately consume it.

Instead, I invaded its mind, channelling all of the psychic energy I could through my Festum. It was helpless to resist, and I dug deep in only a moment. I felt the psychic connection it held with its fellows, and promptly exploited it, using it as a conduit to further invade the minds of the rest of its swarm.

Ah.

Found you.

Below, Walker suddenly became visible, its body recoiling backwards as if it had been physically struck.

That Worm Sphere had deposited something. Walker had come through alongside this subordinate Festum, though Walker had remained hidden while this Festum had been sent to attack.

Impressive; it had the stealth to hide from me.

I'll be taking that.

Give me your life.

Walker shuddered, writhing for a moment. Blue assimilation crystals began to spread over its body as I used the Festum it had created as a link to it. It was fairly slow, as Walker fought back against me, trying to prevent me from consuming it.

Its head moved, and it looked up at me. In a surprisingly Human gesture, its 'eyes' narrowed, and its lower face split apart as it snarled at me.

A moment later, the connection between this Festum and Walker snapped, the assimilation crystals very promptly exploding off of its body, and not a moment later, Walker himself vanished again. I couldn't sense its mind anymore, and its physical presence just seemed to be gone.

I hummed.

Oh, you're going to be an annoying one, aren't you?

I clenched my hand, and completed the assimilation of Walker's Festum. Huh. It actually had a number of useful abilities. Thanks Walker, I'll be sure to have fun with those.

I felt Miwa brush up against my mental barriers again. She wasn't trying to read my mind, just contact me. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome." I responded.

Walker... seemed to be gone. But was it just under very good stealth, or had it actually left the area? Assimilation crystals spread over the palm of my hand as I quickly spawned a number of lesser Festum. These ones would be dedicated search units, equipped with every type of sensor I could fit inside their bodies- and little else.

The assimilation crystals shattered, releasing a flock of Festum, which looked something like a cross between an eagle, and a manta ray. Large wingspans, long bodies, a tail, just a small, quick design. For now, I'll call this type Seekers.

The Seekers flew off, heading to where Walker had been. One flew through where Walker had been, but either Walker had moved, or it had physically disappeared too, as my Seeker met nothing but air. Was I going to have to go bigger in order to find it? If I had to go bigger, I'd go bigger. I'd bring a billion Castles to find that thing if I had to.

That could wait until later, though.

My eyes flicked to the left, where the two Tatsumiya jets were circling me. Their pilots -Maya Tōmi, and Kyousuke Mizoguchi- were both rather cautious, though I could sense no small amount of curiosity from Maya.

Maya.

What was Maya doing piloting a jet? She was a Fafner pilot- or, she had been, at least. She'd been an incredibly good sniper...

Another thing to investigate later. That kind of stuff just keeps stacking up, doesn't it?

Walker didn't seem to be around, so there was no point in just continuing to hover here. I was going to have to keep an eye on the region, but still... I recalled my Seekers, and promptly generated a Worm Sphere over myself.

I had other things that I could be doing.

Time to go and actually do them.

The Worm Sphere expanded, and once all of my Seekers were inside, it promptly vanished, taking me and my Seekers with it.

+++

"The blue one, again." Narain examined the image. "There wasn't any Fafners with it, this time. Perhaps they are unrelated..." He shook his head, before looking over at Emery. "What do you think?"

"It's not like anything I've felt." Emery spoke after a few seconds. "But it's not hostile, either. Miwa asked it to help us, and it did." She frowned. "I didn't even realise it was there until Miwa tried to communicate with it. Even then, I still couldn't read its mind."

Narain noticed her gaze blanking out for a moment. "I'm alright, Miwa. We're all okay. We'll meet soon."

"She was worried for you?" Narain asked, just to confirm.

Emery nodded. Her hands absently grabbed the shoe tied around her wrist. "All of us. She's a very nice girl."

She looked out the window.

The island that greeted her was beautiful. Lush flora covered it, but also a number of buildings; Houses and roads, visible even from this distance. This entire place looked so natural and beautiful that it was hard to believe the islands had been constructed by Humans. And to think that the islands were only a small part of what had been built.

The scale was hard to comprehend. It was just so massive.

Narain stood up. "We'll arrive in a few minutes. Are you ready to go?"

Emery nodded. "I'm ready." She smiled. "Soon, Miwa."


	17. Chapter 17: Logs 161-170

161

Now that I had proved the strength of the Festum I had created, it was high time that I dealt with Vagrant. Or, rather, deal with the Atlantis Mir and Core.

The Core was stored in a room in the NUN headquarters, which was known as Prometheus' Cave. Extremely few were given permission to enter, as this room was integral to the continued existence of the Neo United Nations. It was the very heart of the headquarters, the single most well defended location under the control of the NUN.

They didn't even notice me enter. I used my Hub Network to seize control of their computers, their cameras, every bit of electronics that might have given away anything that happened inside. I spoofed them, feeding them data that was totally, utterly incorrect. The operators looked and noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

What was actually happening was far different.

A Worm Sphere appeared inside the room, fairly small, all things considered. That was, of course, my intention. The sphere vanished soon afterwards, leaving behind only a floating, blue crystal Festum Core.

The full Envoy-Type Festum would not have fit inside the room. I had thus only transported the core- which, granted, was the only part that actually mattered.

The room itself was pretty nice, actually. I especially liked how blue everything was. Blue room, blue crystal, blue lighting... Pleasant.

In the center of the room was a container, and inside that, the core.

The core, who looked like a young child, was strapped to several machines, and halfway consumed by assimilation crystals. He seemed to floating there almost serenely, but that didn't fool me one bit.

Mostly because he was trying to read my mind. He wasn't getting past my mental barriers, but damn if it wasn't amusing.

Honestly, for all their vast psychic powers, the Festum really sucked at direct psychic warfare.

He tried to push in, and this time, I pushed back, gently invading his mind.

I sensed... I sensed hatred.

Damn it.

"Quite the hate you've got there, boy." Assimilation crystals sprouted over him, moving upwards along the machines. They shattered quickly, and the boy looked up to glare at me.

"You!" He shouted. Actually, physically shouted. He was muted slightly by the crystal he was contained in, but still. He had psychic powers and he was shouting at me.

"Me." How did he have that form? I scanned him, pushing slightly deeper into his mind as I did.

The body... was human, but he was still Festum- Ah, I get it. The psychic entity that was the true Festum had simply altered its container, the photon-crystalline structure, into an organic body, which it could inhabit without having to change itself. Neat.

Which was probably how the Tatsumiya Mir had transformed itself- Yeah, that makes sense.

Now, let's try...

The Festum core glowed- before promptly shifting, collapsing in onto itself even as it changed into a Humanoid shape. When it was completely compressed, the details began filling in, and the humanoid shape took the appearance of my old Avatar model, complete with clothes.

Dark brown hair, blue eyes, tall, suitably comfortable set of clothes... yep, good.

I floated forwards, beginning to hum a tune. The Atlantis Core continued glaring at me, trying to force me out of its mind.

It was having no success there. He shortly seemed to realize that he couldn't keep me out, and made the classical blunder of trying to hide information- which only succeeded in drawing my attention to it.

I paused for a moment, my face scrunching up. "You told the Azazel-Types to hide?" I asked.

The Core grit his teeth. "Get out of my mind!"

"No." I immediately denied. Why had he told them to hide?

Oh, he'd seen me assimilate Centaur/Roadrunner. He'd apparently considered me very dangerous to his goal, which was... To break out, take revenge on the Humans who'd enslaved him, and then... Go on to kill every human.

"Damn it." I sighed, shaking my head. "I had been hoping you would be reasonable."

"Hatred doesn't need to know reason! Hatred without reason is the greatest power of all!"

I paused. "Look, you're young, you've got some grievances, dark and edgy is cool, I get it." I mocked the little brat. "But really? Your philosophy is shit."

He growled at me. Actually growled at me.

I frowned. "There are lots of people who were uninvolved in what happened to you, in what happened to Watatsumi Island. You're going to hurt them just because they're Human, and the people who hurt you were Human?"

"Yes!" He snarled. "Everything will return to nothingness!"

"Really? Well, let me just tell you this: I generally try to be pretty tolerant of other people's beliefs, but that tolerance ends at the first murder. And you're talking about a whole lot more than just one murder." I floated closer, passing through the crystal he was contained in. Despite himself, he retreated backwards, and I sensed fear.

Now why was that? "You fear me- No, you're terrified of me. Why..?"

I dug deeper into his mind. He... No, not him; Vagrant had been close enough to witness my arrival here. I hadn't noticed Vagrant when I was in orbit, how- Oh, Vagrant had hid.

And Vagrant had hid because... Ah. In the moment of my arrival, Vagrant had, very briefly, sensed the psychic energy being generated in Exapol. That brief exposure had overwhelmed him, because it was more energy than every single Festum on this planet could generate, combined, too many times over to count.

Interesting. I hadn't been aware one could sense things in Exapol while my Commander was exiting the portal. Yet another thing to investigate.

"Well, I suppose that makes sense." I murmured, continuing to float closer. "You are actually aware of how badly you're outclassed, here."

His back hit the crystal that now held us both.

"If that's the case, then I'll offer you this chance." I came to a stop in front of him, looking him in the eye. "You give up trying to harm those who didn't harm you, and I will let you go." I actually meant that, too. "But, if you choose to insist on keeping that hatred, keeping your desire to harm those who never hurt you, then I will assimilate you here and now, and once I have, I will either obliterate your consciousness so completely and utterly that you will never return, or I will make you watch Barney the Dinosaur for the rest of eternity."

I stared at him.

"Make your choice."

162

"You are justified in wanting revenge." I continued after a moment. "You were hurt, and the people of your island, killed. Wanting to hurt those who hurt you is only a natural reaction." For Humans, at least.

But then again, for a Festum, he was very oh so very Human.

"I don't mind you getting revenge. Hell, they've done enough terrible things that I might even help you do it." He blinked. "But I cannot and will not allow you attack the innocent."

He... He was actually considering it.

Yes. Yes!

Come on, accept it! Make things a little easier for me.

I moved closer, placing my hand on his shoulder. He flinched away, but I simply smiled at him.

"Go on. Make your decision."

He looked up, staring at me. I continued smiling.

He scowled.

Red assimilation crystals spread from his shoulder, over my hand. I halted them before they could spread too far.

Oh, what could have been...

I sucked in a breath, closing my eyes and shaking my head. "Oh well. Nobody can say that I didn't try."

The crystals turned blue as I assimilated them. More spread over his body, consuming him in short order.

I pushed deeper into his mind, tapping the psychic connection between him and Vagrant. It didn't take me long to locate the Azazel-Type Festum. I didn't intend to let Vagrant escape. Another of my Envoy-Types appeared in a flash of teleportation in orbit, quickly slamming into Vagrant, assimilation Crystals spreading over it as I attacked it over two vectors- one directly, with my second Festum, and one indirectly, through the Mir Core.

"For the record, I'm sorry. You didn't deserve what happened to you."

There was a light chime as the assimilation crystals shattered, leaving nothing in their wake.

A moment later, I sighed again.

Damn me and my bleeding heart.

I didn't want to kill him. That little flash of reason... Blegh. I encapsulated the Core's consciousness within my network, preserving it, but also leaving it in stasis. He'd exist, but only just barely.

I did much the same with Vagrant. It may have been little more than a mass of hatred, born of the Atlantis Mir, but still... It's hatred was justified. I did not want to kill it.

Vagrant... had a number of abilities. It could assimilate through light, it could generate portals, and it was capable of directing other Azazel-Type Festum across massive distances... It had a bunch of neat tricks, which were now my neat tricks.

It could also direct the Puppets.

I... hadn't actually mentioned what those were, had I? Looking back over my memories, no.

A Puppet was, effectively, an artificial Human created by the NUN. They could be directed and controlled by Vagrant- and subsequently, the NUN themselves. There were quite a lot of them running around, unaware of their own natures, feeding Vagrant, and now me, data and information. I could have done anything to them. Assimilated them, take control of them, transformed them into Festum, but...

Well, like I said, the majority were unaware of their own natures. They had no idea that they were artificial, that they had been created by the NUN for various purposes, ranging from spying, to gathering up dissidents to the NUN, to getting close to people in preparation for subtle assassination.

I could have done anything. What I actually did was remove the compulsions the NUN had installed into them, and then sever their links to Vagrant- to me. Every puppet was left free, none of them able to be controlled by the NUN, none of them forced to carry out their subconscious compulsions.

I had to wonder how long it would take the NUN to notice my little subterfuge. Probably not too long.

Oh well. Either way, it wasn't my problem.

I floated backwards, passing through the crystal again. My hand rose, and a shimmering purple-blue disk appeared in the air in front of me, looking somewhat like a recoloured and reshaped Worm Sphere. One of Vagrant's portals, except blue because blue was the best colour in existence.

I floated through.

Space debris greeted me, as did the other Festum I had sent up here. The portal closed behind me, and I hovered over to my other Festum.

My feet touched its head, and I promptly dropped into an undignified sprawl onto it.

I looked up at the stars. My gaze focused on one particular area of the sky, where, ever so slowly, Altair came ever closer. It was so slow, months to cross a single solar system.

I suppose I should be grateful for that. It gave me all the more time to prepare.

Soon, Altair.

Hester Gallop, the head of the Neo United Nations, calmly stared at her subordinate.

"Please repeat that." Hester requested. "I must not have heard correctly."

"The core is missing." Oh, no. She'd apparently heard correctly the first time.

"The core is missing." She repeated, slowly, carefully. Her voice was tinged with disbelief, but her subordinate didn't remark on it.

"Yes ma'am."

Hester stood up.

She didn't say a word as she moved forwards. Her subordinate quickly stepped behind her, following.

There was a long, strangled silence as the two made their way down to Prometheus' Cave. Hester had nothing to say, and her underling was far too nervous and jittery to bring attention to himself. They passed a number of checkpoints, until, finally, they arrived outside of the room itself, the blast doors opening.

Hester noted that the main door to Prometheus' Cave was already open. A man was inside, staring at the core.

The missing core. The spot where the core should have been, but wasn't.

Her underling stopped at the entrance. Hester herself continued onwards, coming to a stop once she reached the man, one of the very, very few people besides herself that had access to Prometheus' Cave.

"The core is missing." He spoke. His accent was thick, a pain to decipher at the best of times.

Hester looked up.

The core was, indeed, missing.

She could already feel the utter migraine that was soon to follow.

163

The Neo United Nations were running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. There was a total uproar in the upper echelons, which, in turn, rolled down into the lower echelons.

It was, I'd admit, incredibly amusing to watch. The uproar as they discovered that both Vagrant and the Atlantis Core were missing had been nothing short of hilarious.

The fact that they had no idea when, how, why, or what had actually occurred made it even better. They just didn't have any idea what to do, and a lot of people started pointing fingers when they discovered the tampering of their monitoring equipment. They had no idea what had caused it, just that it had happened.

The more sensible were trying to keep everybody calm. Those with more explosive tempers were definitely not helping when it came to that.

I was fully willing to let that chaos go on, at least until it started threatening lives. At that point, I'd have to step in again.

The group of people who I had restored had steadily grown as time had gone by. There were tens of thousands of people living alongside my Festum, and more were coming every day. I wasn't even a tenth of the way done yet, and this was still the Humans assimilated by only a single swarm of Festum. I still had to recover the ones assimilated by the other Azazel-Types.

There were enough people there that I had eventually moved them above ground, constructing housing for them, which intermingled with the crystalline structures that I had slowly spread throughout the area.

I made sure they had what they needed to survive. A few tried to leave, but mostly quickly discovered that they were completely isolated. Some had tried to continue anyway.

I brought them back once they inevitably collapsed from hunger, thirst, disease, or whatever. They tended to stop after that, apparently deciding that living near Festum was acceptable if it meant that they got to have endless food and drink, comfortable housing, and community.

Not all of them. There was this one guy who had gone out no less than six times, each time coming close to death before I inevitably rescued him. Even now, he was preparing for a seventh.

Props to him if he could actually make anywhere. I sincerely doubted it, but hey.

There were people from all walks of life, here. Most were civilians, but a very significant portion was military. A couple had even piloted Fafners.

Not all, obviously. There weren't that many Fafners, and exceedingly few Festum managed to successfully assimilate them on account of the Fafner's self-destruct systems. It seemed that was coming back to bite them, as every Fafner pilot that hadn't been assimilated was one that was dead permanently, one who I couldn't restore.

On the other hand, every assimilated pilot would have granted the Festum even more knowledge. Not something that could be allowed, as far as the NUN was concerned. I couldn't really blame them for that, I suppose.

Oh well. The lives lost were a shame, but not something I'd dwell on. If I let myself get bogged down by all the people who died, I never would have left Homeworld.

Anyway- The restored Humans had set up something that sort of resembled a government, though it was really more of a meditating body to deal with whatever conflicts arose among the Humans themselves. They had no actual power, and they were quite aware of that.

It was a smart decision, I'd admit. There were a lot of conflicting personalities, and while I did try to arrange things so that there wouldn't be too much violence, I wasn't always successful. Some fights broke out, and some of them escalated to the point of becoming a threat to peoples' health, which is where I stepped in simply by teleporting everybody involved into pools of cold water.

The sudden shock of cold water was remarkably effective when it came to calming people down. Also markedly less panic inducing than sending in Festum to break up such fights.

Sure, the first couple of times it happened had thrown people into a tizzy, but they got the message eventually.

One interesting development I had noted was that some, a paltry amount of those I recovered, had become quite comfortable among my Festum. Most of them were fairly young, too young to care that the Festum could be very dangerous, just focused on how cool they were. Some of them had taken to sneaking out at night, under their caretakers' noses, and making their way towards the crystalline structures that I had slowly built up.

A few of the braver children, or those egged on by others, had even gone inside the center structure. I hadn't exactly forbidden it, or tried to stop them from accessing it, but the smart left it well enough alone.

The words 'Smart' and 'Kids' rarely belonged in the same sentence. I let them come in after making sure they couldn't get in the way of anything, not that there was really anything for them to get in the way of.

The crystals that contained the Humans being restored were far out of reach, and the ground floor was nothing but flat crystal. The Festum I'd put in for aesthetics hovered too high to be messed with, and reaching the lower levels was impossible without phasing.

Such exploration usually stopped when their caretakers inevitably found out.

But, like I said, not all of those who had become comfortable were children. There were a few adults who had eventually started to wander inside. Most of them spent hours inside, simply watching the Festum, or looking over the crystals that contained the Humans I was still healing. Some were interested in the Festum themselves, but others had been more interested in the contents of the crystals.

Usually people looking for their families.

I had not attempted to make sure those that were related to each other came out around the same time. It was, typically, impossible, simply because the Human minds had suffered varying amounts of degradation. Even those that had been assimilated around the same time could end up coming back weeks apart.

When it was possible, I directed those people to the crystals that contained their loved ones. Note the 'When', there. It was not, unfortunately, always possible. Some people simply didn't get assimilated by the Festum, but whether that was because the Festum had been defeated, or whether they had died of other causes was up to debate.

Assimilation really had been a mixed blessing.

164

It was a fairly nice, and mostly normal day.

I spent it trying to hunt down the remaining Azazel-Types, and met no luck there -How fucking hard was it to find a few god damned Festum?!-, as well as restoring assimilated Humans.

The weather was nice and calm. The sky was blue, with only a few clouds floating about.

It would have been a completely normal day if not for one, tiny, little thing.

It was around sunset when it happened.

I frowned.

My attention turned to the sea to the east.

Now, what are you two doing over here?

Far, far in the distance, there was a flash. A bolt of purple lightning raced out, blindingly fast, and heading directly towards the base I had set up.

I saw it move as if it was in slow motion. The lightning jittered unnaturally, too fast, too powerful, and the colour all wrong for it to be anything even remotely natural.

It reached my base in a split second. It was more than enough time for me to react.

A shield shimmered into existence around the base, transparent and bright blue. The lightning hit it, and I forced it away, deflecting the blast upwards.

The explosion came only a moment later. It was massive, far too energetic to have come from a simple bolt of lightning. It washed over my shield, a storm of fire and smoke consuming it, and hid everything outside from view for a moment. The light and sound were muted, as I prevented the majority of both from passing through.

The Humans I was protecting began to panic. I ignored that for now, and focused on retaliating.

Above the central pyramid, an Envoy-Type's Core appeared; teleporting into place. I channelled energy, drawing from both the Festum around, and my own psychic power.

Purely for aesthetics, six lines of light appeared, plainly visible even to the naked Human eye. They began to converge upon the origin point of the lightning, and the glow of my Festum Core intensified dangerously.

They moment the finished, I promptly fired back.

There was a roar of thunder, a blindingly intense flash of light, and an incredibly powerful shockwave, as a bolt of azure energies was launched; my aim impeccably accurate. The firestorm was forced away as the bolt passed through the shields, giving a clear view of the sky again. The bolt moved even faster than the blast of lightning, and, unlike me, the ones attacking could not react at such speeds.

The bolt slammed into what seemed like empty space, and promptly, violently detonated.

The result wasn't all that dissimilar to a nuke going off. A flash of light consumed the horizon, briefly outshining the sun. Plumes of water rose into the air as steam, massive waves being sent in every direction. In another twenty three seconds, the shockwave would reach my base, which would sound like an incredibly loud rumbling coupled with an ear piercing shriek. I'd prevent any damage from happening, but the scale of it had to be admired.

Dark clouds appeared from the haze of water and steam, spreading rapidly and crackling with lightning. Neither was natural- the clouds were, in fact, countless tiny Worm Spheres. Along the surface of the ocean, ice spread out, the water rapidly freezing. Bits and pieces of ice shards rained down, though most were consumed in the clouds.

So, those are the abilities you two have.

Festum began appearing from the ice and the clouds, the former simply materializing on the spot, and the latter shooting forwards in waves.

Two Worm Spheres appeared above my base. Both vanished shortly, leaving behind two of my Envoy-Types. Both began moving forwards, even as I began mass spawning of lesser Festum, creating crystalline nests for them to emerge from. Sphinx-Types, mostly, but there were a number of different types that I had created when fucking around with Walker's Festum's abilities.

The ice and the clouds shifted, both beginning to rapidly expand towards my base. At the forefront of both were my two enemies- the two who had attacked me.

Aviator and Crawler. Lightning crackled from Aviator, while ice spread around Crawler, its very presence seeming to sap the heat from its environment. Lesser Festum surrounded both, both swarms seamlessly moving together.

I absently poked at their minds, not putting too much effort into it. Both Crawler and Aviator rallied, both of them co-operating to defend against my mental probe.

I... could probably get in if I really tried. It'd be easier if I could get physical contact with them, and easier still if I could start assimilating.

How nice of them to show up together. Now I didn't have to hunt them down.

Just had to get the Humans out of the way, first. Didn't want them to end up as collateral.

Assimilation crystals spread out over the ground, and then through the city I had constructed. I began sinking it underground, where it would be marginally safer. Certainly safer than up here, at least.

The numbers of my swarm grew rapidly, but their reinforcements just didn't stop. More kept coming from the ice and the clouds.

I held my swarm back for the moment, dedicating them to defence. My Envoy-Types had enough power behind them that they would serve as perfectly functional army killers, anyway. Even if something did go wrong, I still had the other nine hundred and ninety eight Envoy-Types to bring in, plus all the modified Salvator Model Fafners I'd built. If even that was, somehow, insufficient, I could bring in a Castle or two...

I didn't know why these two Festum had teamed up to fight me, but I'd find out shortly enough when I assimilated them.

My Envoy-Types raised their hands, heatwaves beginning to rise from their forms. I altered the shape of my shield, transforming it from a spherical dome into a shape-hugging form, which I wrapped around my central pyramid, my Festum structures, and whatever Human buildings were still sticking out of the ground. The third Envoy-Type's core began to charge energy again as I prepared another attack.

Now then, let's begin.

I targeted first the lesser Festum of the two swarms. The attack came suddenly, in the form of a bolt born of burning Light energy.

It lanced out from the core above my central pyramid, and split into a dozen more lines of light before it reached them. Each bolt twisted, curving and bending; each one finding a Festum's core, piercing and destroying them before twisting again and seeking out yet more Festum to destroy.

Several hundred died in less than a second, Worm Spheres consuming them. More followed in their wake, until Aviator and Crawler themselves intervened, working together to generate a mostly transparent purple barrier, much like the one that Roadrunner had generated, though far more powerful given there were two Azazel-Types here.

My energy bolts met it, and failed to break through, scattering harmlessly as they washed over the shield.

Didn't matter too much. I had accomplished what I wanted.

Now, with the swarm thinned for the moment, my two Envoy-Types acted, both of them darting forwards, going from zero to a little over Mach 15 in an instant. The sonic boom was incredibly loud, and I was forced to generate another shield to protect against the shockwave.

A number of portals opened up in the air, which my lesser Festum began moving through. I deposited them among the enemy swarm at the same time my two Envoy-Types arrived at their targets, Aviator and Crawler.

The two were closer together. Aviator's hands were touching Crawler's 'shoulders', a mass of assimilation crystals connecting the two.

Interesting.

My Envoy-Types rushed directly at them, and both slammed into, of course, another shield.

It was very strong, I'd give them that. But it was also like Roadrunner's, which meant there was a weakness I could exploit.

I matched the energy wavelength of my Envoy-Types' shield with theirs, and all of a sudden, there was nothing to stop them both from going through. My Envoy-Types split up, one slamming into Aviator and the other slamming into Crawler.

The former, I took up into the skies, while the latter, I took into the ice it generated, slamming it through and forcing it underwater.

And now, they've been separated. Neither could come to help the other.

Excellent.

I took Aviator up into the skies, waves of heat radiating off of me. Assimilation crystals had already begun to spread over it, though it was doing a very good job in slowing down the assimilation.

Not too surprising, as I wasn't interfering with its mind. I could, but I wanted to see what else he could pull out.

Aviator roared, and lightning gathered in its hands. It swung down, and thunder roared as Aviator unleashed it upon me. My skin bubbled and warped, then exploded away- Aviator taking the opportunity to free himself from my grip.

I regenerated quickly, assimilation crystals briefly consuming what had been damaged before shattering, revealing an unharmed, fully repaired body.

I danced to the side as Aviator shot another blast of lightning at me. Lesser Festum were coming up through the clouds, some that I recognized and some that I didn't.

My hand came up, and the next blast of lightning fell into a Worm Sphere, which began spewing Worm Arrows at Aviator- who very promptly started flying around at rapid speeds himself, trying to avoid getting hit. One of his Festum slammed into me, its arm shaped like a blade.

Its mistake.

I assimilated it the instant it touched me, consuming it in but a few moments. Through it, I used its psychic link with the other Festum of its swarm to attack them, hitting both Aviator, and the lesser Festum.

The latter were not nearly as capable of resisting me as Aviator. Assimilation crystals spread and consumed hundreds of the swarm, before Aviator managed to cut them off from the hivemind. The bladed Festum now no longer serving a purpose, I consumed it completely too, letting the assimilation crystals rain down to the ice below.

The bulb-like protrusion on Aviator's back suddenly opened, and a golden spike extended. Lightning crackled in the clouds around as Aviator drew in the energy to the spike, before releasing it as another, but far more powerful blast of lightning.

It met my shield, and I forced the lightning to bend around me, sending it to the ground below. It wasn't as powerful as the opening bolt, but he had probably had Crawler's assistance for that.

I raised my arms, holding them out to the side. The heatwaves I was emitting intensified, and the glow of my body tinged purple.

A massive conflagration bloomed soon after as I unleashed the heat and flames. It was a torrential storm of fire- but I didn't stop there.

Whirling vortexes of air formed, capturing the fire in tornadoes and hurricanes, each emitting enough heat to melt dozens of kilometres of rock into magma. Aviator's storm clouds were drawn into them, denying him his Field.

Aviator was already moving backwards, trying to escape the heat- but it didn't help him, as I promptly teleported in front of him, my glow now a dangerous hot red.

How about this?

I unleashed yet more power.

This blast wasn't nuclear, but it was just as cataclysmic. The shockwave forced away the entirety of Aviator's clouds, and flat out annihilated the lesser Festum surrounding us. The heat caused the ice below to simply sublimate, starting a steam explosion to go along with my fire.

Aviator was consumed, utterly. It wrapped itself in its shield, but that wasn't enough. The shield bent, warped, and then broke under the sheer amount of energy being unleashed, and Aviator himself was left unprotected.

Burn.

The fire consumed Aviator, washing over him. I felt his pain, the psychic scream as it was incinerated. The fire blocked any normal view, but my sensors penetrated it easily.

Aviator's flesh was burning away, bubbling madly before bursting. It was using its power to defend itself, but the fire scorched it regardless. His arms and legs had been reduced to stumps, what little of them surviving scarring an angry red.

He was in a bad way, which meant that it was time for the killing blow.

166

At the same time as I engaged Aviator, I also began fighting with Crawler.

Where Aviator went up, Crawler went down. I took it into the ice of its very own Field, and slammed it straight through.

The both of us went into the ocean below. Crawler attempted to freeze the water, to trap us both in its field- but a little application of heat stopped that effort cold. I had to continuously output more and more energy as Crawler worked to drain it away- but I stopped it from forming its Field, and it was thus cut off from instantaneous support.

Crawler really didn't appreciate that.

The ocean slowed us both down, while our abilities counteracted each other's. It would be a slugging match for either of us to win; but I was the one who held the advantage here.

My ability to assimilate was better than its.

Crystals had begun spreading over it the moment that I had touched it, but, much like Aviator, Crawler fought back, slowing the progress of the assimilation. Also much like Aviator, Crawler attempted to escape my grasp, though the methods differed.

Where Aviator had electrocuted me and destroyed my flesh, Crawler simply abandoned the portion of its body that I was touching, the flesh separating from the rest of the body with a spray of shifting red-gold 'blood'.

Crawler took the opportunity, instantly moving backwards, the assimilation crystals that had spread over its body shattering without the connection to maintain them.

It was already regenerating the lost flesh... Can't have that. I moved forwards, intending to press the assault.

Crawler acted immediately, his limbs briefly shining black and purple, before six black-purple blades spread from them. Worm Spheres reshaped into blades... interesting.

The water sizzled where the Worm Blades passed, the matter being erased from existence. Crawler spun as I came closer, his blades twirling around in a very dangerous dance.

He shot towards me, Worm Blades flashing.

I dodged around them, twisting and warping my form to avoid them all. Crawler was fast, and surprisingly intelligent- the moment I dodged too many of the blades, he moved back, heading closer to the surface while warding me off with his blades.

Eh... underwater combat was a bad idea. I could be doing a lot more above. Sure, Crawler would have his Field, but lesser Festum didn't really matter that much.

Crawler met the ice, and a moment later, so did I. Except, where Crawler gracefully phased through, I simply detonated the entire area, instantly outputting enough thermal energy to cause a steam explosion in the water around me, shattering the ice for several hundred meters around.

I broke through easily- not that solid, unbroken ice would have stopped me anyway.

Lesser Festum immediately swarmed, most prominent being the Pleiades-Type Festum, and the hordes they created. They made the exact same blunder as Aviator had- touching me caused almost instantaneous assimilation, and subsequently allowed me to launch a psychic attack across Crawler's Hive Mind.

Much the same as Aviator, Crawler shortly cut that particular avenue of attack off by severing the connection it shared with the Festum that I had assimilated- but not before I claimed the lives of several thousand of his swarm.

I sent a mocking feeling to Crawler via telepathy- and surprisingly, Crawler actually responded to it, leaping up to attack me again.

Worm Blades lanced towards me. I moved to the sight moments before they passed through where I had been- and then I reached out and grabbed two of them.

The Worm Blades reacted as if they were made of normal matter, and not the matter-obliterating masses of doom they actually were. I twisted my wrists, and the blades broke, a jagged shatter line forming as if it had been normal metal. Before the top halves could disappear, I grabbed and stabilized them-

And then I used them to cut off Crawler's other limbs, severing them with yet more spurts of Festum 'Blood'. Crawler shrieked with pain, and immediately attempted to move backwards to safety.

Too late for it, however. I dug both blades into Crawler's chest, cutting to either side of its core. A flourish; and several segments of the flesh were very suddenly vacated from Crawler's body.

The green crystalline core was plainly visible- and I wasted no time in discarding the borrowed swords. Crawler was attempting to regenerate, but the wound wasn't closing quick enough to stop me from doing what I wanted.

I shoved my arm straight into its missing chest, my hand grasping the core. I yanked it out of Crawler's body, holding it open to the air. Assimilation crystals immediately began to spread over it, slowly consuming it. Through it, I began consuming what was left of Crawler's swarm, devouring them quickly and efficiently.

It tried to escape, using its power to generate a number of Worm Spheres over itself- all of which I promptly disrupted. I was not simply going to allow it to get away after it had so graciously wandered into my clutches.

Above, the skies suddenly burned, a massive conflagration briefly lighting up the dusk battlefield. The clouds that were Aviator's Field parted, while the ice that was Crawler's Field melted from the sheer heat, though it didn't affect me or Crawler's core. A number of Festum around died, exploding into Worm Spheres- mostly the remains of Aviator's swarm.

Crawler didn't have anything left of its swarm anymore. And soon -three, two, one- nothing left of itself, either.

I let my hand tip to the side, the remaining assimilation crystals falling from my palm. Hmm. A number of useful abilities.

Let's see. My hands rose up, palms facing Aviator.

There was a flash of black-blue light as I shot a number of energy blasts at Aviator. Three in total, because Aviator certainly wasn't in a position to dodge at the moment.

All three hit, each one causing a portion of Aviator's body to snap-freeze, covered in ice. It fell to the ice below, and both of my Festum went after it. Both slammed into it, and both began assimilating it, helpless to defend itself thanks to Crawler's ice. My ice now, I suppose.

Give me your life, Aviator.

167

Right.

That's Crawler and Aviator assimilated. Such interesting things they were both capable of... Their powers were mine, now.

So many humans that they had consumed, too. Both had easily taken just as many as Roadrunner had, each. It had been a significant amount of time for most of them, but I had already begun restoring those who had been assimilated. Some of the worst off would take at least a decade to be restored.

Oh well.

With Roadrunner, Vagrant, Crawler, and Aviator assimilated, that only left Walker and Floater. The former had only popped up around Tatsumiya Island, but the latter...

I had no fucking idea where the latter was. Floater was seemingly content to just... not show up. Floater was fairly notorious for that, actually, even the NUN had no actual, solid records of it launching attacks on Humanity. It had been seen exactly twice, and never since.

With Crawler and Aviator gone, I had removed the spires I'd built, and absorbed the Festum that had been born. I had also raised the city back to the surface; though the Humans were still fairly nervous, and that would probably break out into a fight later on, but for the moment, they were safe.

Oh, hello.

Walker is doing something again.

Excellent, another opportunity for assimilation.

Let's see... He was generating a Field near Tatsumiya Island, though it was outside of the range of all eight Welle Shields... Bunch of lesser Festum, a brawler thing from before, several Sphinx-Types, a Sphinx-D-Type, and a Scarab-Type.

But... no Walker himself? The Field that the lesser Festum appeared from vanished, fading away. Walker was nowhere to be seen.

Hmm. Interesting... He was evidently intelligent enough to realize that showing himself was a terrible idea so long as I was around, because I would assimilate him. He was evidently not intelligent enough to realize that simply not attacking Humans would reduce the chances of that happening even further.

Or, perhaps, he was simply too driven by hate to care?

I held off from immediately going to assimilate them. I wanted to see what they would do- Walker and Tatsumiya Island alike.

Walker's Festum floated a bit closer to Tatsumiya Island, and promptly encountered the Welle Shield that protected it. The Festum all touched it, and the Welle Shield began to fluctuate.

It took roughly two minutes for them to break through; a small rip in the shield opening that allowed them all through. The Festum advanced, the brawler in the front, the Sphinx-Types in the middle, and the Scarab-Type in the back.

I had to give the people of Tatsumiya credit- they certainly reacted quickly. A number of Fafners had been launched, five in total. Four were waiting on the outermost island, but the fifth, a white coloured mech, was flying through the air.

That one would be the one to lead the Festum towards the rest, then?

The moment the Festum broke through the shield, the white Fafner began shooting at them, dodging spontaneous Worm Sphere appearances. The Festum began heading towards it, and the Fafner retreated backwards. A successful lead.

I prepared to intervene if I had to. This was Fafner, after all. Death Flags for everybody.

But aside from that, I wanted to see whether or not Walker would tip his hand. If he showed up... Oh boy, that would be fun.

The Scarab-Type and the Sphinx-D-Type landed on the ground, while the rest of the swarm continued forwards. Interestingly, the Scarab-Type was behind the Sphinx-D-Type, which was strange because the latter was a primarily long-ranged Festum.

Hmm.

The white Fafner moved in again, opening fire on the long-ranged Festum. A Sphinx-Type got in the way, its hands raised- and the shots bounced off a shield that the Sphinx produced.

The other Fafners began moving forwards, rushing, actually. More Sphinx-Types went to meet them, while three converged upon the white Fafner. That Fafner met the one defending the other two Festum, and used its weapons to break through the shield, piercing the Festum's body and shortly shooting out the core.

It went backwards, spinning, before throwing one of its weapons to another of the three Sphinx-Types. Its aim was true, and the sword pierced the Sphinx's chest.

Throwing away your weapon didn't seem too intelligent to me, but the Fafner evidently had a plan for that; shooting a cable that wrapped around the handle of the sword-gun, and then using that cable to fire the weapon, destroying the Sphinx-Type's core, and also dislodging the blade itself.

It promptly began using the tied up weapon as a long ranged blade, spinning it and flicking it around like some kind of large, demented yo-yo. Except instead of a yo-yo, it was a gunblade attached to the end of that string.

I had to admire the skill with which it wielded such an improvised weapon. It flung that thing around, and used it to slice a Sphinx-Type Festum straight in half, before opening fire on another one that was moving to attack.

Unfortunately for it, the brawler came in.

The brawler simple slapped aside the blade when the Fafner tried to attack him with it, simultaneously wrecking it. The Fafner was subsequently forced backwards, frantically dodging melee attacks. The bad things happening did not end there, as the flesh of the Scarab warped, twisting around into a warped cylinder.

A large crystal pillar emerged, forming a new Field. The Welle Shields of Tatsumiya Island quickly began to erode, losing a significant amount of strength. The Sphinx-D-Type also quickly acted, green assimilation crystals spreading over its body- and a Worm Sphere forming in front of it.

The white Fafner quickly twisted, slicing at the brawler to ward it away, before retreating even further. It probably would have saved the pilot's life had I not been here, as the Sphinx-D fired at the Fafner not a moment later, a bullet-like Worm Sphere shooting out at it. I watched it move in slow motion, and decided not to intervene- the Worm Sphere missing the Fafner by mere inches.

The Worm Sphere continued onwards, and very promptly punctured the second and third Welle Shields, before bouncing off of the fourth. It was an angle thing rather than the strength of the shield itself that enabled it.

Hmm.

That Festum was a dangerous one. I might actually have to intervene.

But, not yet.

168

The other Fafners were doing well enough without the brawler to mess with them. One of them, an oh-god-why pink coloured mech equipped with an Aegis Shield system, engaged two Sphinx-Types in melee combat, kneeing one on the chest and slicing the other in half not long afterwards. A third died shortly afterwards, being shot through the head- which also destroyed its core.

A much more sensibly coloured blue Fafner engaged three more using twin blade weapons. One appeared to be a long, thin stick that was generating energy blades to each side, a Long Sword, but the other was a typical Luger Lance. It jumped, sliced one in half, landed, stabbed another through the chest with the Luger Lance, killed it, and then cut the third one in half, just for good measure.

The two in the back were working together. One had another Long Sword, but the other was equipped with two massive energy cannons. Both were making quick work of the Festum that came for them, the former cutting them up, and the latter shooting them with energy cannons.

I nodded in approval.

They're doing well.

But still, no Walker.

The Sphinx-D-Type fired again, this one aimed at the pink Fafner. It reacted admirably quickly, projecting an Aegis Shield in front of itself, behind which it weathered the blast. One of the four emitters burned off, leaving it with just three- and an appropriately smaller shield. It wouldn't be able to take too many more of those.

The brawler apparently decided that Fafner was a bigger threat than the white one. One of its arms shifted and warped, altering into a cannon like shape. True to appearances, it promptly began firing, rapidly sending scores of Worm Spheres down at the pink Fafner.

Intelligent enough not to rely on the weakened Aegis Shield, the pink Fafner promptly jumped away, using the Aegis to block what shots it couldn't dodge.

Taking advantage of its distraction, the white Fafner promptly attacked, rushing in and slicing it in half at the waist.

Ooh.

Not the best of ideas.

Both halves of the brawler were very quickly consumed in assimilation crystals, which promptly spread further into the air. They shattered not long afterwards, revealing the brawler, and the brawler's three clones. The brawler itself went to attack the white Fafner, while the three clones moved to attack the other Fafners.

The Sphinx-D attacked again, this blast launched towards the blue Fafner, who simply stepped out of the way. Again, the bullet continued along the path, and punctured a few Welle Shields as it did, making new holes for the second, third, fourth, and fifth Shields.

That thing could probably puncture all eight if it actually aimed towards the center of the island, given how the Field had eroded the barriers. Luckily, it seemed to be focused on attacking the Fafners themselves rather than the island.

Oh, no, speak of the devil.

The Sphinx-D prepared to fire again- but right at the last moment, it turned, facing Tatsumiya Island. I idly calculated exactly how much damage it would do if the shot landed- It'd puncture all eight shields, hit Tatsumiya, break through Tatsumiya, and continue into the Alvis submarine underneath. If the shields didn't alter the trajectory of the shot, it'd puncture... straight through the most important parts of the Alvis submarine.

The submarine would sink, and take with it all people who lived on it.

Would the shields alter the trajectory? Yes. Given the current strengths of the Welle Shields, the round would slam into Mukou Island. The Worm Bullet itself would have lost enough cohesion to detonate on the island instead of puncturing it, however.

It would still cause a fair amount of damage to the Alvis Submarine.

Guess I will be intervening.

A Worm Blade appeared as I teleported in, directly in front of the Sphinx-D. The bullet fired, and met the 'flat' side of the Worm Blade. The round went upwards as I deflected it, puncturing through the first Welle Shield on its way out of the atmosphere.

The Sphinx-D didn't get the chance to act again, as I promptly slammed my foot on it, assimilating it as I crushed it.

Its mind- was already cut off from the Festum Hive Mind. It had been cut off an instant before I touched it.

Walker had learned.

How irritating.

My hand rose into the air, the Worm Blade hissing as it moved, and I promptly swept it in front of me; cutting the crystal pillar of the Scarab-Type in two.

The Field it was generating promptly collapsed, and the Welle Shields started strengthening again now that they weren't being eroded by it.

The Scarab itself acted immediately, a flash of light creating a square pane of energy. Four such panes spread up along my blade, which began twisting the moment they were in place. The first spun left, the second spun right, and the pattern repeated for the other two.

My blade followed the distortion, each segment twisting in different, conflicting directions. The blade shattered not long afterwards, as I didn't bother trying to reinforce it.

A dangerous ability.

Another Worm Blade ignited in my other hand, and I promptly stabbed the Scarab. Assimilation crystals spread over it- and it too lacked a connection to the Hive Mind.

Damn it, Walker. Why couldn't you just be dumb so I can assimilate you and get it over with?

Ugh.

The assimilation crystals shattered, and I turned to face the remaining Festum. Two Sphinx-Types, as well as the brawler and its clones-

A round ripped open a Sphinx-Types chest, and it was consumed by a Worm Sphere not a moment later.

Okay- one Sphinx-Type and the four brawlers.

Not that the last one would be lasting much longer. One of the five Fafners, the one with a horn- Oh, that's Mark Zwölf. That's Seri's Fafner, isn't it?

Was she still the pilot, or did the Fafner have a new one?

Oh well. Doesn't matter too much.

I ignored the last Sphinx-Type, and focused on the brawler- the real one, the one attacking the white Fafner.

My hand raised into the air, my pointer finger extending towards the brawler. Light appeared at my fingertip, and four weak, but visible lasers extend, all of them beginning to converge on brawler.

Not necessary, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a flair for the dramatic.

The lasers converged on the brawler's chest, over where its core was. I didn't immediately fire- mostly because the white Fafner was in the path of the shot.

The brawler tried to keep the other Fafner in the path of the shot, but that didn't work. The white Fafner swiped at it, and then burst to the side, leaving it safely out of the way.

I fired not a moment later, sending a laser blast at it that the brawler had no ability to dodge. It was very suddenly missing its entire chest, core included. Two Worm Spheres consumed both halves of its body, and the clones it had created faded out of existence not a moment later.

Behind me, Mark Zwölf dispatched the last Sphinx-Type, and like that, the battle concluded.

Leaving me surrounded by five Fafners.

169

"Azazel-Type Festum: Lazuli. Do not engage." He ordered.

Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, Zwölf, and Neun held back, all five understandably wary.

Fumihiko Makabe stared, considering it.

The Festum was simply standing there, looking around. Its head went from one Fafner to another, spending a few seconds on the first three each before moving on. It spent considerably longer on Zwölf and Neun than it did for any of the new pilots, but eventually looked directly at Tatsumiya Island.

"Where is Hino Miwa?" He asked.

"Medical Bay 1!"

The medical bay? Why was she in the infirmary?

"Where is-"

Lazuli vanished, disappearing in a flash of light. Except- Solomon was still responding.

"Where did it go?" He asked.

"It's... It's in the Cave of the Valkyrie!"

"What?!" A Festum near the Core? How could it even fit-

A new screen opened up, one of the few cameras inside of the Cave of the Valkyrie showing what was happening inside.

A blue crystal core was floating near the core, which Solomon identified as the core of Lazuli. It was smaller than he had been expecting, but that didn't change the fact that it was right next to the Core.

"Get-" Once again, he was interrupted- this time in a way that left him speechless.

The Core began glowing a bright yellow. The Festum seemed uncaring, but a moment later, the capsule that contained the Core promptly opened, red liquid spilling across the floor. The Core, Minashiro Tsubaki, stepped out, her steps slow and shaky.

She pulled herself up, but stumbled, collapsing to the side. A blue pane of energy caught her, and the Core used that to support herself.

"Thank you."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Tsubaki Minashiro. Tatsumiya Island's Core. Except... this wasn't really Tsubaki, was it? Tsubaki had given her life to the Mir in order to teach it about the cycle of life and death. The one in front of me was...

"What is your name?" I asked.

"I don't have one." She pushed herself up, leaning on my energy constructs. "Not yet, at least."

Hmm.

"Very well." I pulsed. "I must admit, I'm surprised that you wished to meet me."

"And I'm surprised by how well you know our language." Ooh, snippy. I liked her already. "You are no normal Festum."

"That obvious, is it?"

"You're not exactly trying to hide that fact." She pointed out.

"Fair enough." I conceded.

She looked up at my crystalline form for a moment. "The Mir accepts your presence here. However, I have to ask what you want."

"I want to assimilate Walker." Blunt, and to the point. She appreciated that, I could sense. "Walker is currently somewhere around this island, hiding."

"And?" She asked. "What does this have to do with us?"

"Walker seems remarkably hostile towards you. He chooses to continue attacking you, even knowing I'm here, instead of going off in search of easier pickings." Very interesting, that. "That kind of hatred is something I can exploit. So long as he isn't trying to run away, it will be easier for me to track him down and assimilate him once and for all."

"And you wish to use our island for that?"

"I am, of course, ready to offer my assistance in return for allowing me to live on your island." I said. "I do not intend to interfere with your way of life. Walker is my only target."

"Hmm." Her arms were trembling as she tried to keep herself upright. I idly generated a counter-gravity field, and turned the intensity up slowly.

I stopped when gravity in the local area reached about half of what it previously was, and she stopped having trouble supporting herself.

"You rushed yourself. Your body is underdeveloped, isn't it?"

"I had to accelerate my growth in order to meet you." She said, answering.

"You didn't have to meet me right now." I pointed out. "I would have been content to wait while you grew."

She shook her head. "I would have woken soon anyway. A few days early doesn't mean too much."

I idly noted the massive door that lead into this room opening.

"Still, you're not in the best condition because of it."

"Tsubaki-chan!" Hey hey, that's Seri. And Soushi, and a whole bunch of guards. All of them were equipped with heavy weapons, a few even had missile launchers.

Right, because those would totally do anything that would actually matter to me.

The Core turned to look at her. "Minashiro Tsubaki was the name of my mother." Seri stopped, looking at her with confusion. Soushi, behind her, was well composed. "Do not call me by that name."

"Harsh." Ice-cold, definitely unlike Tsubaki.

She looked at me for a moment. "You're talkative for a Festum."

"I'm not a normal Festum, now am I?"

"I suppose." She looked away, towards Soushi. "Soushi, gather Fumihiko, Kazuki, the people from Srinagar, and the others."

"Kazuki..?" He nodded, choosing to listen to the Core.

"Seri." The Core looked back at Seri.

"Y-yes?" So nervous, Seri.

The Core raised her arms towards Seri. "Carry me."

"... Huh?"

"I cannot walk well yet." The Core explained. "Hurry."

Oh, but damn this was hilarious.

Seri gave a squeak of acknowledgement, and, doing her best to ignore me, quickly moved over and picked the Core up. I warped gravity around her as she moved, so she didn't have to deal with a sudden change, and cut off the gravity field entirely once she reached the Core.

The Core wrapped her arms around Seri's neck, and leaned in. "We finally meet."

Aww, she did have some soft spots. That's adorable.

Seri gave another sound of confusion, but the Core interrupted her before she could ask anything. "What are you doing? Carry me."

"Ah, right."

She stepped down, careful not to slip on the liquid that had spilled over the floor.

"What about..." Soushi looked at me.

The Core looked up for a moment, before nodded. "You come too. And, Soushi? Hurry. Those who live near Srinagar might die."

...

"Say what?"

170

I floated slightly behind Seri as she carried the now clothed Core towards the meeting room. A number of people were inside, including Emery, I couldn't help but note. Miwa... was elsewhere on the island. Sleeping, it seemed.

I had shrunken the size of my core rather significantly to get it to fit through Alvis' corridors. It was only half a meter tall, now, instead of the well over twenty it would have normally been.

The door opened, and there were a number of quiet gasps- mostly at the Core's appearance, rather than mine.

"Why are you surprised?" The Core asked.

"We hadn't expected you to be awake so soon." Fumihiko spoke, diplomatic. "How long have you been aware?"

Seri moved over, gently setting the Core in a chair. "Ever since you chose to fight." She leaned back in the seat, breathing out as her eyes close. She's exhausted, it seems.

I moved to an empty spot around the table, settling above the seat of a chair. More than a few people stared at me, some regarding me with interest, more regarding me with caution.

"Now then," Emery startled, her head snapping to me, a shocked and surprised expression on her face. "You said that those who live in Srinagar might die."

"I did." The Core sighed, before opening her eyes and straightening up. "Events are in motion. Humans will become the enemy."

Was she trying to be mysterious?

"Enemy?" Seri asked.

"Do you wish that Minashiro Tsubaki would not use such a word?"

"A-ah, that's not..." Seri quickly backtracked.

Narain, who had been until then staring at the Core with something akin to astonishment, shook himself, before speaking up. "What do you mean?"

The Core looked at him. "Humans will attack Humans and Festum. Srinagar will be the site of a battle. Tatsumiya Island will be the site of another."

Now, how did she know this...

Wait. Humans attacking Humans.

"Human Army?" I pulsed.

"It seems so." She nodded in response to my question.

"The Human Army..?" Emery seemed confused by the conversation. "Why would they attack Humans?"

Narain frowned. "The Human Army? There has been quite the uproar among the leaders, now that I think about it."

"Uproar?" Fumihiko asked.

"It happened not all that long ago." Narain began. "Something happened in the Neo United Nations Headquarters- something which I wasn't privy to, but which sent everybody who was into a panic. The Neo UN has been rather chaotic, since. I still don't know what caused it."

The Core's head turned, and she stared at me. Taking note of her gaze, so did many of the other people in the room.

"Such suspicion you have."

"Suspicion that I believe to be well founded." The Core stated. "It was you, wasn't it?"

I let my amusement be known.

She frowned again. "Why is it that you don't talk? You clearly have the grasp of our language to do it."

"Because I was having fun using psychic powers up until you ruined it." I spoke aloud, vibrating the air around me given that I currently lacked any other method of making noise.

The heads of every single person in the room snapped to me.

Assimilation crystals spread out from me, taking a roughly humanoid shape, before retreating- and leaving a fairly simple robotic unit in its place.

"Spoilsport." I half-heartedly accused her.

"Y-you..." Narain stuttered, but didn't finish his sentence before Soushi spoke.

"You can speak Human languages?" Soushi seemed shocked.

"Of course." I waved it off. "Anyway, you suspected correctly. The upper echelons of the Neo UN went into chaos because of my actions."

"What did you do?" She asked.

"They had a Mir fragment which they had enslaved." The humour in my voice took a sharp nose-dive. "It had come to hate Humanity; and not just those that had enslaved it, but also the innocent and the unrelated. I tried to convince it to give up its hatred, that failed, and it was subsequently assimilated after it tried to assimilate me." I sighed. "A shame, that. The things that could have been, the potential and the possibilities that were lost..."

"An... enslaved Mir fragment?" Emery seemed horrified by the thought.

"One of the three fragments of the Japan Mir." I continued. "Held on the third Alvis; Watatsumi Island- or, as the Neo UN knows it, Atlantis."

Narain released a breath of horror.

"As you can imagine, the circumstances where the Neo UN acquired the Japan Mir Fragment were not... pleasant. Watatsumi Island was discovered by the Neo UN, its people were killed, its Core was captured; then enslaved, and used to create an Azazel-Type Festum known as Vagrant." The lights of my eyes dimmed for a moment. "Vagrant was also used to enable satellite communications. Further, it could be used to monitor and, to a degree, direct other Festum swarms. Not control- but guiding the other Azazel-Types to attack things was a fairly easy task."

Total and complete silence followed my statements.

The Srinagar group seemed to be struck in horror. The Tatsumiya group were also silent, processing what I had said.

Hmm.

"Ah. That's why the Human Army is going to attack Srinagar." I figured it out. Not too hard, given the context, but I just didn't think of it before now.

"Wh...at?" Narain asked, a pause in between the word.

"The Neo UN has a lot of Fafners." I said. "Where do you think the cores for all those machines came from?"

"The Watatsumi Mir." The Core spoke.

I nodded. "Having enslaved it, they could force it to create new cores for their use. Granted, those cores aren't much worth talking about, but quantity has a quality all of its own, I suppose." I turned to face Narain. "They'll probably try to attack Srinagar in an effort to take your Mir. Without the Watatsumi Mir, they don't have much, if any, ability to replenish the losses they take when fighting the Festum. Acquiring a new Mir will be their number one priority- and what do you know; both Srinagar and Tatsumiya Island have two up for the taking."

They'd do it, too. The Neo UN had proven themselves very willing to fuck over would-be allies to advance their own causes.

Oh, this was going to be annoying.


	18. Chapter 18: Logs 171-180

171

"Not that it matters." I continued after a moment. "They won't succeed. Too many have already died in this pointless little conflict for me to allow any more." My head turned to the Core. "Unless they have something I'm not expecting?"

They don't. My infiltration in their computers had already shown me everything that they had. If they did, they'd have to have some fairly incredible stealth systems, and a project that was completely, totally, entirely off the books and with no contact to any outside group.

Which was, needless to say, not very likely.

"And what do you expect?" She asked in turn.

"Nothing that could actually pose a threat." Honestly, the most powerful thing they could throw at me is Mark Raison- which is currently lacking a core, is only half built, and also has no available pilot that would be able to withstand the assimilation phenomena it would produce if one actually tried to start it up.

That thing isn't going anywhere any time soon.

"I might say arrogance." She said.

"And I might say ignorance." I returned. "They have exactly one thing that might be able to pose a threat, and they can't even field that Salvator-model anyway."

"Salvator?" Soushi, this time.

"Mark Raison. It is the third such model in existence, alongside Mark Sein and Mark Nicht." I turned to him. "But as I said, they cannot deploy it. It is not fully constructed, and it doesn't even have a core ready for use." I scoffed. "The only other thing available is some larger nuclear weapons, which, if it successfully destroyed me, would also destroy either of your Mirs. It is not an option for them, which, in turn, leads to the only remaining choice: simply deploying massive amounts of units in order to overwhelm any defenders, kill the civilians, and then take the Mirs by force."

I held my hand up in the air. "And unfortunately for them, quantity only matters when it can successfully make up for the difference in quality. They do not have such quantities. Certainly, they'd be a massive threat- but you," I gestured towards the Tatsumiya group. "Have Mark Sein and Mark Nicht. If you actually bother to fight back, you'll win. You on the other hand," I gestured to the Srinagar group. "You don't have a pair of stupidly powerful super-Fafners ready to beat down any assaults. You're much more vulnerable to attacks."

Narain slowly nodded.

"Either way, you don't need to worry about it." I said. "Like I said, too many have died for me to allow any more. If they try to attack you, they will not get past me."

"Why... would you help us?" Emery questioned.

I turned to her. "Because I want to." I sighed. "My goal is the preservation and restoration of life. The hostile Mir fragments, and the Human Army, both seek to destroy each other. The hostile Mir fragments kill and assimilate Humans, while the Human Army attempts to destroy any and all Festum, enemy or otherwise. Both are causing significant amounts of death and destruction, even among those who wish for peace. Even among those on their own side, in the case of the Human Army."

They were way, way too fond of nuclear weapons.

"Restoration?" Kazuki asked, speaking for the first time.

"Nice to see that somebody was listening to what I actually said." I turned to face the center of the table. A hologram emitter activated, and a hologram of Earth appeared above it. "Now, quite some time ago, I encountered and took over an abandoned Human Army base." A point on the holographic Earth highlighted, and the hologram shifted into a flat plane, showing that point from orbit. It quickly began zooming in, until it showed a view of the base I had taken over.

The town surrounding it was fairly hodgepodge, catering to everybody's preferences. The crystalline pyramid in the center was fairly massive, having been expanded to account for the assimilation of Crawler and Aviator. "Some time afterwards, I assimilated the Azazel-Type Festum which you know as Roadrunner. Roadrunner was hostile to Humanity, and in the process of attacking the Big Island Hawaii base at the time."

Narain nodded at that.

"Now, as you are all no doubt aware, it is possible, but rare, for a Human personality and consciousness to survive assimilation intact." I looked at Soushi. "You are one such example, Soushi Minashiro, though you have some rather special circumstances behind you." I turned back towards the hologram. "But back to my point, the consciousnesses and personalities- the minds of other Humans are normally absorbed into the Festum Hive Mind, where they would degrade over time thanks to exposure."

Emery gasped, her eyes widening. "Restoration- Are you saying-"

"I am." The hologram changed again, this time showing the inside of the pyramid- and the many, many, many Humans suspended inside. "In assimilating Roadrunner, I also acquired every single Human mind that Roadrunner and his swarm had consumed. They had suffered varying degrees of degradation, but their personalities, thoughts and memories were intact enough that I was able to begin healing them. Restore them."

I showed one of my memories- Karin waking up inside of her crystal, and subsequently hitting her head on the inside of it. Still makes me laugh a little, that.

"And, ultimately, allow them to exist again." I showed a feed of the people currently living in my city.

There was a shocked silence throughout the room. So surprised~

Oh, how amusing.

"So that's why you want to assimilate Walker." The Core spoke up after a few seconds. "How many?"

"38,409." I looked towards her. "Out of roughly 900,000,000. It will take at least a decade to restore them all."

"Y-you can reverse assimilation?" Emery, and everybody in the room, was still stunned. "I had... never even..."

"Only for the Humans whose minds I can acquire." I stated. "The North Pole Mir assimilated vast amounts of Humans during its time on this planet. Its fragments hold the minds of those Humans split between them. Some, like the Azazel-Types, are hostile, while others are not." Like the Festum Forest.

At some point, I'd have to go have a chat with that one and see if I could get it to give up the Human minds inside of it.

I'd have to track down the other North Pole Mir fragments, too. And speak to Ashoka, because Ashoka was also one such fragment.

So many things to do.

Oh well. I had time.

172

"Anyway," I turned back towards the Core. "Putting that aside for the moment; you haven't answered my question yet."

She shook her head. "It is not entirely my decision to make."

I snorted. "I'm impressed you can say that with a straight face. If you say yes, everybody on this Island will go along with your decision, no matter their own feelings. That's the respect you command, Core of Tatsumiya Island."

"What question?" Fumihiko asked.

"It wants to stay on the Island so it can hunt Walker more efficiently." She answered. Her eyes closed for a moment, and her head lulled, before she shook herself slightly. She was tired- which made sense, considering how weak her body was.

Chizuru Tōmi took notice of that, and frowned.

"Of course, that answer can wait until you're actually in a condition to make it." I stated.

"I'm fine-" Stubborn.

"You're not." I observed. "Your body is malnourished, your muscles are under-developed, and you are currently experiencing a severe lack of energy; all of which was a consequence of you waking yourself up earlier, which, again, was unnecessary."

"Staying asleep would have simply guaranteed my destruction. The Mir and I agreed on that." Her eyes closed again.

I tutted. "Perhaps, but that doesn't change the fact that your body is currently very weak. Stubborn or not, you need food, rest, exercise, and an actual medical check-up." I gave a considering hum. "This meeting isn't all that urgent, you know. Aside from my presence here, the only other thing of note is the possible attack in Srinagar. Even still, that won't come for a few weeks."

She frowned. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"No." I denied.

She sighed again. "Fine. The Mir has already accepted your presence on the Island anyway. Fumihiko, Soushi, I'll leave that to you." The two nodded. "Chizuru, can you please get everything ready for my examination." Chizuru nodded. "Seri, carry me."

Seri hurried to pick up the Core, gently shifting her around before hauling her up. Both Seri and Chizuru quickly left the room, which left me, Emery, Narain, Kazuki, Soushi, and Fumihiko present.

The latter two looked at me after the door shut, a considering expression on Fumihiko's face. He didn't really know how to deal with me. Soushi, on the other hand, was far more on the ball.

"Do you mind if we call you Lazuli?" He asked.

"Not particularly." It was what they had designated me- this type of Festum, at least. I couldn't say that I minded it- and I had already used the name Drich for my avatar. While I could use it here again... it didn't matter all that much.

I turned towards Fumihiko. "You don't mind me staying on this Island?"

"If the Mir has accepted you, so shall we." He sighed. He stood up, and gave another considering look.

My body gave a slight mechanical whirl as I stood up. "Just treat me like you would a Human."

Fumihiko nodded. "Right. Lazuli, then."

Narain and Emery had headed back to their aircraft, while Soushi and Fumihiko lead me around Alvis, giving me a tour. The design of Tatsumiya Island differed a fair amount from the design of Watatsumi Island, but, long story short, all the important bits were in basically the same place.

The moment that tour finished, and they told me where I was and was not allowed to go to, Fumihiko headed off to the command center, while Soushi took me to the medical room, where the Core was just finishing up on her tests.

We came in to find her half asleep already, leaning against Seri as she wasn't really able to keep herself upright.

"Is she alright?" Soushi asked. He was concerned for the Core, it wasn't too hard to tell.

"She will be." Chizuru nodded, sparing a glance at me. "But she'll need a lot of food and rest as her body develops. I would also prefer it if somebody kept a close watch on her at all times."

"Seri." The Core muttered, still drifting in and out of consciousness.

Seri made a surprised noise, but the Core continued, expertly dashing her hopes. "Easier if she's around to carry me."

"Regretting coming out so early now, aren't you?" I put an amused tone in my voice.

She gave a half-lidded glare to me- and then yawned.

"S-so, uh... where are you going to sleep?" Seri questioned.

"Your house." The Core slumped slightly.

"Well, it's good that you're okay." Soushi... gave an awkward, stilted smile.

"You can't sleep just yet." Chizuru frowned. "It would be better if you got something to eat and drink now, otherwise you will be extremely hungry when you wake."

The Core nodded, accepting the wisdom.

"To Kazuki's restaurant?" Seri asked her.

Oh right, he did have a restaurant, didn't he?

Again, she nodded.

"Most of the other pilots will likely be there by now." Soushi said to himself. "It'd be a good opportunity to introduce you to the others." His head turned to me.

"I suppose that's a good idea." I agreed. "As I'll probably end up fighting alongside them, it would be intelligent to get to know them."

The Core let out a slight groan, before straightening herself up. She held her hands out, and Seri quickly picked her up, the Core wrapping her arms around Seri's neck.

I looked at myself, checking over my form.

Robotic... really wasn't that appropriate if I was going to meet new people, was it?

Assimilation crystals spread over me, consuming my form, before retreating again. Blue Festum flesh had taken the place of the cool metal, the shape still mostly the same- save for the fact that it was more organic looking. Everything was a single, connected piece, instead of multiple different pieces connected by small joints- though it retained the fairly angular machinery look.

"Very well then. Let's go."

I idly wondered how the meeting of the other pilots would go. Chances were that some of them would freak out a little bit, but others should prove fairly fun.

It should be interesting, at any rate.

173

"Sword!" The voice of a girl who was far too cheery near-shouted.

I obliged her, and constructed a sword, golden light gathering and coalescing in my hands, forming matter and energy. The blade took shape, and then the guard, and then the handle. An intricately designed sheath soon twisted into existence around it, strings and strands wrapping their way up the blade, merging together into wood and cloth.

It floated languidly, before moving over to the hands of the girl- who promptly took it with a very, very excited expression on her face, and a slight squeal.

Mimika Mikagami was not at all what one expected when they thought of Fafner pilots. The twin-tailed, red-haired girl was excitable, fully of barely restrained energy, and entirely too cheerful.

The words 'Genki Girl' came to mind if I had to pick a single phrase to describe her.

Which, this being Fafner, did not really speak well of her survival chances.

The other Fafner pilots watched the scene with varying expressions. Two of them were new, Reo Mikado and Sui Kaburagi, who, along with Mimika, formed the three pilots of the new generation.

The rest, though, were all familiar. Kazuki was over there, cooking, while Maya and Soushi chatted with him. Seri was with the Core, helping her out, and generally making sure the Core was as comfortable as she could be. Sakura Kaname and Kenji Kondou were sitting together, both occasionally glancing at me. Hirito Douma was sitting with Akira Nishio and Reo, while Rina Nishio was currently seated with Sui.

Canon was nowhere to be seen.

Mimika, of course, was sitting at the same table I was. She'd been the first one to actually try and talk with me after Soushi had brought me in, and now, here I was, making objects for her at her bequest.

I wasn't... entirely certain how things had to come to this, but here we are.

Mimika oohed and aahed as she examined the sword, carefully sliding it out of the sheath. I idly noted Reo's eyes narrowing as he looked at the scene.

Mimika either had a sixth sense for such things, or just good timing, because she chose that exact moment to look over at Reo, holding the sword up for examination. "Reo-chan, you like swords don'tchya? Come here and check this out!"

Reo recoiled slightly at the sudden attention of the exuberant girl, a light dusting of red appearing on his cheeks. He got up a moment later, and somewhat nervously moved over.

Mimika held the sword out to him, and he carefully took it. He wielded it with some actual skill, examining it carefully. He grabbed the handle with both hands, settling into a stance a moment later.

He shifted the blade around, going through a few slow motions, before taking the sheath when Mimika offered it.

"It's surprisingly well balanced." He admitted, sliding the blade back into the sheath. "Not all that heavy, either."

"That was my intention." I spoke.

Reo twitched, slightly, still unused to a speaking Festum.

Mimika couldn't care less, it seemed. "Can you make a shield?" She yelled asked.

More golden light gathered in my hands, which shortly began expanding into complex machinery and smooth metal. Mimika frowned as it took shape, confused because it didn't look like a shield.

That confusion lasted until I activated it, a pale blue translucent hexagon forming as the shield emitters activated. Mimika's eyes lit up, and she quickly took the emitter from me, moving it around, and subsequently moving the shield it generated around.

She set it on the table, and then began messing around with the shield itself, touching and poking it, and then setting objects on top of it, starting with napkins, before escalating to forks, and then cups and plates. It was a spectacle that attracted the attention of everybody else in the room, though neither Mimika nor I gave a damn.

She cleared off everything she'd put on, and then picked up a knife.

She jabbed it, and when that failed to get through it, began putting her weight on it. She could have been jumping up and down on it and it wouldn't have mattered.

The knife bent before she made any progress on the shield, and she led it up to her eye, examining it. I twirled my fingers, and the knife bent back into shape, restored to its previous condition.

Mimika grinned at me. "Awesome! Can you do stealth generators?"

I obliged, golden light appearing and forming into a rather bulky and obviously high-tech belt. Mimika took it after I finished constructing it, and then quickly put it on.

The belt activated as she pressed a big blue button, and she shortly vanished from sight.

Not mine. I could still see her easily. She checked over herself, shifting about- before promptly pumping her fist. "Awesome! I'm invisible!"

"We... can still hear you, Mimika." Reo said after a moment.

Mimika pouted, then realized nobody could see it and deactivated the belt with another press of the button. The cloaking field collapsed in a way that wasn't all that dissimilar to the way Tatsumiya Island's cloaking shield did.

Mimka grinned again, turning to me- and then noticed that I was looking in the direction of the Core, who had fallen asleep on Seri's shoulder.

Seri herself had only just noticed, and was carefully picking up the Core, trying hard to not disturb her. The Core actually looked rather cute when she was sleeping, and not trying to keep up her icy expression, which was wonderful teasing fodder.

For later, of course.

Seri stood up, the Core in her arms. "We'll be going, everyone."

She received a whole bunch of goodbyes from everybody in the room. Soushi stood up, moving over to open the door for her since Seri didn't have a free hand, to which he got a smile and thanks from Seri.

I looked back at Mimika. The girl had gone back to examining the belt, poking and prodding it.

"What does that belt run on, anyway?" Sui asked from across the room. "It must be pretty energy intensive?"

"Micro-fusion reactor." I answered.

Mimika very suddenly paused, and then delicately placed it down on the table in front of her, leaning away.

Such trust she had in me. Very inspiring. Wow.

174

"Yo, Fumihiko."

"Daisuke." The head of Alvis greeted him.

Daisuke put down the tools he was using, wiping the sweat off of his brow. "So, I've been examining the devices we got from Lazuli, and... Well, that stuff wasn't what I was expecting."

"Anything special?" Fumihiko asked.

"Oh yeah." He gestured towards a bunch of disassembled components. "See this? Hydrogen-hydrogen fusion reactor." He held up a small cell. "This? It's a fuel cell. Just pure hydrogen. Thing is, it's incredibly powerful and efficient- it's generating more energy per unit of mass than Alvis' own fusion reactors. It's what powers all the technology Lazuli has constructed."

"Is it dangerous?" Fumihiko questioned.

Daisuke shrugged. "Not really. It has a whole lot of safety measures for something so small. You could play baseball with this thing and it wouldn't detonate." He set the cell down again. "'Course, that isn't the only thing we've got that's interesting."

He picked up the shield generator. "This thing? More stable, durable, and less energy intensive than anything we've got. Surpasses Welle Shields, and Aegis Shields- aside from size in both cases, of course. Cloak field generator? Same thing. Less energy intensive, larger field, even better than what the camouflage mirror could do."

He gestured to the sword, a semi-traditional Daito blade. "This? It's perfect. Literally perfect, every single atom is in perfect arrangement, or so close to it that our tools can't detect a difference."

"What do you think based on what you've seen so far?"

"Well, honestly? Lazuli seems more technologically advanced than we are."

The next day came by quickly.

Tatsumiya Island was, I'd admit, fairly idyllic. The scenery was beautiful, the people were nice, if initially awkward, and life was good.

If not for the fact that I was prone to wanderlust, I certainly wouldn't have minded staying here. Even then, given that I was going to be sticking around for a good decade while I restored the people who had been assimilated...

Guess I would be staying for a while.

I leaned against the railing of the Tatsumiya Island lighthouse, looking out over the ocean. Why they actually had a lighthouse, I wasn't entirely sure, as it sure as hell wasn't being used to guide ships.

The sun was just peaking over the horizon, the sky tinging the red of early morning. The varied fauna of Tatsumiya Island was also waking up, crickets chirping and birds hunting for worms.

The Tatsumiya Mir was ever active, maintaining the ecosystem, keeping those who inhabited Alvis safe and healthy.

The...

Actually.

I had completely forgotten about that.

"Mir." I spoke.

The air swirled around me curiously. The Mir did not know Human languages, but it understood me just fine, and I; it.

"You would have assimilated a few Humans, haven't you?" Of course it had.

The air swirled again, this time in confirmation. A moment later came a feeling of questioning.

"I wanted to restore all Humans who have been assimilated." I answered it. "Do you mind telling me what condition the minds of those you've assimilated are in?"

The air stilled for a moment as the Mir considered my request, before it began sending information.

The minds... were not in that bad of a condition, actually. The Mir had been attempting to preserve them, but hadn't really known how until fairly recently, owing to its lack of understanding about how Humans- about how non-Festum life in general worked.

Still, that was better than the callous hate of Roadrunner, Vagrant, Crawler, and Aviator. While those four may not have been actively trying to destroy them, they hadn't been trying to protect their minds, either.

I could work with that.

There were quite a few more than I had been expecting, actually. Some were quite young, others old...

Most were young, actually.

A few, I even recognized.

Which was surprising, since a few of them really shouldn't have been there.

I put that out of mind as I began sending information back. I started with fairly simple things, concepts and ideas that the Mir would need in order to understand what else I was about to show it. The Mir absorbed the information easily enough, learning from it and expanding its knowledge. More complex things came later, and I showed the Mir how minds worked, detailing the processes of Human brains, before moving on from that to show it how to repair minds, rebuild personalities exposed to the Festum Hive Mind. I had to teach it to discern between what was damaged and what was normal, so that it didn't try to 'fix' a person whose personality was outside the norm, but that wasn't particularly difficult.

A bit time consuming, perhaps, but the both of us were very capable of raw data processing. Admittedly, the Mir had to have it in a format it could actually understand, but hey. It wasn't all that big of a deal on my end.

The Mir... also didn't really get how Human bodies worked, which was another thing I shortly had to teach it. I showed it, again, how to determine normal states, how to determine was what damaged and what was not, and how to heal and restore that damage. I taught it how to avoid system shock, how to read genetic code and extrapolate from there, how to cure diseases and fix genetic damage.

One more thing I made absolutely certain to teach the Mir was to not just start going off and using everything I had taught it. I made sure that it would respect a person's right to self-determination, made sure that it wouldn't just start trying to fix because it saw flaws, but, rather, would make sure that a person actually wanted whatever it was trying to do- and actually saw it as a flaw; something to be removed or fixed.

The Mir's view of things wouldn't always coincide with another person's view of things. That, however, was a lesson that it already knew- had Humans and Festum not been able to understand each other, after all? Of course not, and it was that misunderstanding that had led to so much death and destruction, pain and hate.

With the prerequisites met, I moved on to the last lesson; how to restore Humans who had been assimilated.

I didn't need to be the only one working on this particular project, after all.

175

"You taught the Mir." A voice came from behind me. I recognized it instantly; it was the Core.

She walked -walked- up the stairs of the lighthouse, her expression somewhat guarded.

"I might have." I decided to mess with her a bit. "What makes you think that?"

"The Mir told me." She responded, her tone flat and unamused. "And even if the Mir hadn't; I'm walking."

"So you are." I scanned her body for a moment. All the deterioration that had come had with her early awakening was gone- the Mir did good work, it seemed. "Well, you're correct. I taught your Mir."

"Why?" She came to a stop beside me.

"I said that my goal was to preserve and restore life. You're smart, I'm sure you can figure out why I taught the Mir given that."

"You taught the Mir... how to reverse assimilation?" She asked.

I nodded, smiling. "Your Mir has assimilated Humans. Did you think that I would exclude them from my goal?"

Her eyes closed, and she took a slow breath. "Of course not." Not an answer to me, she was just speaking to herself there. "We need to talk."

"We currently are talking." I pointed out.

She gave a slight glare, looking at me from the corner of her eyes. I resisted the urge to smirk- it was fun riling her up.

"Fine." But, this conversation would be a serious one, wouldn't it? "What is it you want to talk about?"

"Your interference." Oh? "Specifically in the case of battles."

"I'm listening." This ought to be good.

She looked at me. "The Mir's power is still developing. This island will soon see many battles. If you interfere with them, you will stunt the Mir's growth, which will ultimately not end well for any being on this island."

"You don't want me to interfere in your battles?" I asked.

"Indeed." She nodded.

I hummed as I considered it.

Well, not entirely sure about the 'not end well' aspect of it, but I suppose she did have a point. "I'll accept, unless either Walker shows up, or these battles endanger lives. Then, I'll intervene."

"That's the best I'm going to get out of you, isn't it?" She questioned, frowning.

"Letting people die would be against the whole 'my goal is to preserve life' thing, wouldn't it?" I looked at her. "And if Walker shows up... Well, it's not likely that he will, but if he does, it's his fault." He's shown himself to be fairly intelligent so far. Too driven by hatred to give up on attacking this island, perhaps, but intelligent nonetheless.

That last battle had been a good demonstration. A Sphinx-D for long-range attacks, a brawler to keep the Fafners busy, a Scarab to establish a field, and then all the lesser Festum to act as cannonfodder... Fairly solid tactics, all round. It was good enough that he might have been able to sink the island if it wasn't for my presence.

All the Sphinx-D would have needed was a single good shot to the Keel Block, and then... Alvis goes further into the water than the designers had ever intended.

"Thank you." She tipped her head.

"Don't thank me. While I won't allow them to lose their lives, your people will still get hurt. Those who pilot the Fafners especially."

"The Mir is already thinking about that."

Oh?

Now that sounded interesting.

Of course, that could wait for a bit.

"Hold that thought. We have a visitor." The door behind us opened again, and Emery slowly stepped out. The girl looked fairly tired, but that may have just been because of the ever present bags under her eyes.

"Don't be shy, Emery. We won't bite-" I looked at the Core standing next to me. "Or, at least, I won't."

The Core gave another glare, frowning. I grinned at her.

Emery hurried forwards, nervous. It reminded me, not insignificantly, of how Anastasia had acted before she had gotten comfortable around us. She was clutching the shoe in her hand, and she hunched over slightly.

"I... forgot to ask, before."

"About what, dear?" I asked.

"There is... a Mir coming towards this planet."

"Altair. I noticed." I looked up. Given the current rotation of the planet, he was actually above us. "How couldn't I?"

"A-ah." Emery gave a jerky nod. "Right."

I chuckled to myself, before reaching out and patting her on the head. "No need to be so nervous, you know. I'm a nice person."

"When you're not being annoying." Snippy~

I turned to the Core. "You make it far too easy. Keeping that serious expression on your face doesn't help. Why don't you try smiling a little, life will wear you down if you take it seriously all the time."

Her eye twitched a little. "You are a strange Mir."

"Nobody ever accused me of being normal." I shot back.

Oh, Miwa is awake.

"Did you have anything else you wanted to say, Emery?" I asked. "I have a feeling your friend will be looking for you soon enough."

Emery looked down, her feet shifting slightly. "I... wanted to ask..."

"Yes?" I encouraged.

"You... know our language. You're the only Mir who speaks our language."

"I'm not... really a Mir, but go on."

She shook her head. "How? How do you know our language? No other Mir fully understands Humanity, but you..."

"You are no normal Festum." The Core finished. "If you are truly Festum at all."

"Now, that's an interesting accusation." I chuckled.

"Is it as accurate as the last one?" She asked.

"Yes, but also no. You are indeed speaking to a Festum, but a Festum is not all that I am." I spoke. "But as for what else I am, and the answer to your question, Emery, let's just say..."

Light bent around us, our surroundings going dark. Emery twitched as she looked around, surprised, and slightly afraid, but the Core didn't too much.

A hologram shimmered into being, showing Earth. The hologram expanded, and the moon appeared, before both shrunk rapidly as the rest of the solar system began filling in.

The full solar system shrank, and others began appearing, little more than points of light at the scales they were representing. The rest of the galaxy appeared, and I let it hang there for Emery and the Core to examine.

"Humans and Festum are not the only forms of life in the cosmos."

176

The Srinagar group left later that very day, taking with them a transport from Tatsumiya. Aboard were a few of their Fafner pilots, Maya, Hiroto, and Akira, as well as Miwa and Miwa's mother, Yumiko Hino.

Apparently, they wanted Miwa to talk with Altair. Well, Ashoka wanted Miwa to talk with Altair, though I doubted she'd actually be able to do so.

The Tatsumiya group had initially been rather leery when it came to sending them at all, given the circumstances and what the Core had said yesterday, and, strictly speaking, they still were; but they still sent the group off.

Might have had something to do with the fact that they had been planning it before I had arrived, and before the Core had awoken.

Kazuki's restaurant was apparently open throughout the day, at least so long as there wasn't an emergency happening.

So, that was where I found myself hanging out for a while.

Which, of course, meant that was where the Core also usually appeared.

"So, I hear Seri gave you a name."

"Orihime." She responded.

"Minashiro Orihime, then." I smiled. "A nice name."

She looked at me strangely for a moment, before turning towards Kazuki. "Kazuki?"

He looked up, smiling curiously. "Yes?"

"Can I have some curry, please?"

He nodded. "Be right up."

I looked at her, my head tilting to the side as she turned back towards me. "Okay, I'll bite. You're thinking about something."

"Not fun to be on the other side of it, is it?" She asked.

I grinned. "Oh, I still find it pretty amusing."

She frowned.

"You're never going to win this game, sweetheart. I've been at it a hell of a lot longer than you." I chuckled. "But let's be serious for a moment, and talk. What are you thinking about?"

Her head turned to the side as she glanced at Kazuki, before turning back towards me. "There is a... mind which the Mir now holds."

"Do go on." If she wanted this to be private, I'd oblige her.

"His name is Kouyou Kasugai." Oh ho ho~ That was a name I recognized.

"Yes?" I encouraged her to continue.

"He was partially assimilated by a Festum, and was subsequently transformed into a Slave-Type Festum." She turned to the side, accepting a bowl of curry from Kazuki with a nod and thanks. "Because of this, his mind is still fully intact within the Mir."

"While this is an interesting story," Oh so very interesting. "I am uncertain as to how it relates to me." Though I did have an idea...

"You have taught the Mir how to restore Humans. Kouyou is no longer Human." She blew on the curry, cooling it. "He is a Festum."

"You'd be surprised by how little difference there can be between the two." I noted. "You wish to see him restored, don't you?"

Orihime nodded.

"Finish your curry, then we'll go down to the Well of Urd and I'll show your Mir how it works."

She frowned. "Why the Well of Urd?"

"It's where new cores for your island's Fafners emerge, isn't it?" I asked. "You said it yourself. Kouyou is a Festum. The Well of Urd is where Festum cores emerge. You're smart, you can figure it out from there, can't you?"

She nodded.

"Though I do have to ask, didn't you tell me not to interfere not all that long ago?" This would count as interference on my part, by my reckoning. "What happened to that?"

"In this particular case..." Her eyes flicked to Kazuki again, who was blissfully unaware of our conversation, slowly stirring a pot with a wooden ladle. "The interference is beneficial to the Mir. What you taught it was not entirely complete, after all."

"Right. Beneficial to the Mir. Because the benefit to the Mir is the sole and total reason why you're doing this." I looked at her. "You know, you could have just said that you wanted him restored for the benefit of those on the island, and I wouldn't have judged you."

She looked away again. "That Kouyou was the friend of many people on this island is unimportant."

"I'm sure." I nodded. "It's certainly that, and not because you're actually a big softy underneath that icy personality of yours."

Once more, she glared at me. It was cute in a way- she was so young, yet she had such an irritated expression on her face.

"Either way, eat up. Once you're done, we'll go restore Kouyou."

Ah, the Well of Urd. The birthplace of new Festum cores, and the liquid supercomputer upon which Solomon relied.

Nice place. Small room, a walkway with no railings directly over the liquid supercomputer itself. It was just begging for somebody to fall in, really.

Not that such a thing was a problem for either of us.

We came to a stop in the middle of the walkway, the light reflecting off the liquid below onto us. I could just feel the psychic emanations of this place.

I held my hands out to each side. "Mir?"

The Mir acknowledged me a moment later. I connected with it, and began walking it through the process of restoration.

It wasn't particularly difficult. Kouyou was a Festum, his mind un-degraded; a consciousness and personality without a body- all we had to do was make one for him.

The water below began to glow, pulsing with golden light. It coalesced quickly as the Mir and I worked together, shaping the new core, transforming it into the perfect vessel for Kouyou Kasugai's mind. It took the form of a typical Fafner core; two golden bits orbiting a smaller point of golden light.

With the vessel formed, there was only one thing remaining; and that was to place Kouyou's mind into it.

"Wake up, Kouyou." I stated. "You are not done yet."

177

The transformation was quick, sudden. One moment, the core was floating there peacefully, and the next, it flashed gold as Kouyou himself materialized-

And promptly fell to the ground, falling to the walkway with a thump.

He was... not entirely as I'd been expecting. For starters, he was clothed, instead of naked like literally everybody else that had been restored. His hair was also a fair bit longer than I had been expecting, falling down in a wavy mess.

"Ouch." He looked up at the ceiling.

"Welcome back." Orihime spoke. Kouyou looked at her, then shifted, getting up and dusting himself off as he did.

"Thank you." Kouyou responded. "Got to say, that was a new experience."

"Coming back?"

"Falling on the walkway."

Orihime blinked.

Kouyou brushed his hair out of the way of his eyes, and then looked at me. "Thank you, too."

"Oh, it was no particular problem on my end." I smiled.

A sudden bark pulled the attention of everybody in the room.

"Chocolat?" Canon asked.

The small dog was looking at the door to the café, tail wagging incredibly quickly.

"That's strange." Kazuki wore a confused expression. "Chocolat is normally very well behaved."

Canon nodded, agreeing with him.

There was a sound outside, and the door began opening. Chocolat immediately took off, running directly at the door. "Chocolat!"

The door opened, and Chocolat immediately barrelled into the one opening it, knocking him over.

"Chocolat!" Canon called again, sliding out of her seat. Chocolat was licking at somebody on the ground, while both Orihime and Lazuli looked on.

"Kou...you?" Kazuki looked over, sounding shocked.

"Hey-" Kouyou was forced to turn his head to the side as Chocolat licked at him, barking and yipping excitedly. "Kazuki."

Ever seen how a dog reacts to soldiers coming home from deployment?

Yeah, Chocolat was doing something like that to Kouyou. It yipped, barked, jumped all over him, and was just generally the happiest little thing on the earth at that moment.

Dogs are great.

Kouyou absentmindedly pet it, smiling.

"When did you... come back?" Kazuki asked.

"About ten minutes ago." Kouyou answered, looking up. "Can't say I was expecting it."

"His mind was still intact within your Mir." I stated. "Orihime asked for my assistance, and I showed your Mir how to restore him."

Kazuki looked at me, a bit surprised, before smiling. "Thank you."

I waved him off. "Thank Orihime. She was the one who asked."

"Down, Chocolat." Kouyou pulled away again, which did absolutely nothing to dissuade the little dog.

Canon watched it from the sides, somewhat uncertain of what to do. She seemed happy at the fact that Kazuki was happy, as well as Chocolat, though.

Kouyou, in between being licked by Chocolat, looked at her, giving a small smile. "Thank you for taking care of Chocolat."

It was high time that I actually did what I said I would.

Far away, more than a third of the world away from Tatsumiya, a Worm Sphere pulsed in and out of existence, depositing one of my Envoy-Type Festum.

Ahead was the Festum Forest. The crystal trees were large, grand, each one taller than my Envoy. I felt the Mir react to my sudden presence, suddenly... cautious isn't the exact word for it, but it will do.

I sent a feeling of peace to the Mir, indicating that I only wished to talk. The Mir responded shortly after, this time... again, curious isn't the right word, as this Mir didn't really have that emotion, but it was close enough to act as a descriptor for the moment.

I began walking closer, communicating my intentions- to ask it about the Human minds it held within itself, and then to ask if I could have them. The Mir deliberated, before responding.

I gave a mental frown as it did. The minds weren't... that bad. They hadn't degraded too much, but that was only because the Mir had cut them off from full contact with the Hive Mind, and had put them in stasis, much like what I had done with the Watatsumi Core. That was... fairly good, actually. It'd be easier to restore them in that case- at least, easier than if the Mir had just let them degrade as time went by.

I stopped just in front of one of the crystal trees, placing my hand upon it. A blue wave of light spread out as the Mir and I briefly synchronized.

It did as I asked, and began sending me the Human Minds. In return, I taught it Human language and emotion, expanding upon what concepts it had already learned.

Back at my base, the Pyramid I had constructed began growing again, expanding to account for the new minds. I began working to restore them immediately, though it'd be a few days before the first one of the new group popped up.

I thanked the Mir, before turning away and teleporting off again.

That Envoy-Type reappeared above the pyramid I had constructed. I took a moment to examine the city from its view, before it went inside.

The city was doing fairly well, though it was currently shifting around again into a new configuration- again because I had altered the size of the Pyramid. Blue crystal pathways stretched out from the central pyramid in every direction, like lines of circuitry from up here. Buildings were placed between them, each one connected to the crystal pathways.

There were a few people wandering around, and most of those people noticed my Envoy-Type fly above them, heading towards the central pyramid. It got a few mutters- mostly at its size and shape, but the people quickly went back to their own business when the Envoy went out of sight.

The Envoy's body dissolved as it went inside the central pyramid, the core continuing to float forwards, towards the floor. It phased through when it touched it, and began making its way towards the room where I was keeping the rest of the Envoy-Types.

I nodded to myself.

With the minds from that Mir fragment now attained, that left only Walker and Floater.

Two more objectives and then... I'm mostly done here.

178

It was a few more days before Walker tried something again.

It began in the middle of the day, when a purple Field formed on the ocean outside of Tatsumiya's outermost Welle Shield, which deposited some Festum.

This time, it was four brawlers, and a winged Festum, which quickly began spawning lots and lots of the flying eyeball Festum. Again, Walker didn't dare show himself, but that didn't matter too much, as the lesser Festum he'd sent quickly began breaking through the outermost barrier.

Though still slow enough that Tatsumiya had time to react.

I hummed a pleasant tune as I walked into the command center, Orihime by my side. Fumihiko was already in here, as were the five bridge bunnies that were Alvis' operators.

"Enemies are an Ousia-Type and four Sphinx-Es!" Really. Sphinx-E?

You couldn't come up with a better fucking designation for the brawlers?

"The same numbers as the Fafners?" Fumihiko muttered.

"Walker has a plan, no doubt." Orihime and I came to a stop at his side. "He's pretty tricky like that."

"Fumihiko. I'm sending out the Norns."

Fumihiko's head turned to the side, before he nodded to her.

Actually, I'm going to go watch this from outside. Be able to see more of the action that way.

I teleported outside, appearing far above Tatsumiya Island. Far in the distance, though that wasn't a problem for me, Orihime's Norns emerged from the water, hundreds of them quickly forming up into a floating wall formation.

Not all that long after, Tatsumiya's Fafners came out: Amaterasu, piloted by Sui; Susanoo, piloted by Reo; Tsukuyomi, piloted by Mimika; Zwölf, and Neun.

With the Fafners on the field, the Norns quickly flew off, diving into two streams and heading off to follow the Ousia.

They quickly began firing, but none of them had any luck hitting, as the Ousia ducked and weaved between the blasts, using a shield to block what couldn't be dodged. It retaliated by forming Worm Spheres among the Norn swarm, managing to clip a few of them, which caused them to detonate as they were very suddenly missing some of their structure.

Still, the remainder of the Norns followed, herding the Ousia upwards, and slowly boxing it in. More and more shots began to hit as the Norns' cone of fire tightened, though the Ousia's shield proved to be up to the task. If the Ousia didn't get rid of the Norns, it would shortly be overwhelmed, which would leave the Fafners to deal with the five braw- Sphinx-Es.

Of course, it seemed like the Ousia had a plan, as it promptly generated a number of Worm Spheres, this time in close proximatity to itself. The Ousia kept moving forwards, but the Worm Spheres were left behind, the Norns parting around them.

I shook my head.

Bad move, Orihime.

The Worm Spheres, now behind the Norns, burst apart, each one forming dozens of the winged eyeball Festum, creating a swarm almost as numerous as the Norns. They quickly began firing on the Norns, shooting hundreds upon hundreds of Worm Arrows upwards into the sky. The Norns shortly enjoyed their own tactic used against them, as massed fire promptly and violently destroyed hundreds of them.

That probably hurts Orihime quite a bit, actually. If she's controlling them, then she'd be feeling the feedback from them being destroyed.

Don't envy the girl.

I turned my attention below, where the Fafners were currently engaging the Sphinx-Es.

Or, at least, Susanoo and Zwölf. Tsukuyomi stood in front, Aegis Shield activated, while Amaterasu was heading upwards towards the Ousia, and Neun was holding back, taking aim with the rifle.

The former two moved in for a melee attack, which was promptly blocked by a shield projected by one of the Sphinx-Es.

From there... everything quickly descended into a clusterfuck for the Fafners.

One of the four Sphinx-Es moved forwards, stepping out of the shield, its arms shifting into cannon-like shapes, which immediately began to shoot black-purple Worm Spheres at Tsukuyomi, who...

Stood there and let the blasts hit the Aegis Shield, before charging forwards directly at all four Sphinx-Es. It was a suicidal charge thankfully stopped by the Sphinx-Es own cannon blasts.

Not a moment later, another of the four Sphinx-Es moved forwards, its arms transforming into blades. It attacked Susanoo, who blocked both arms with a Luger Lance. Unfortunately, that was not the end of Susanoo's woes, as the Sphinx-E promptly grew another two arms and began attacking with those.

Zwölf, not too far away, engaged the third Sphinx-E in melee combat, and got a fist to the chest for the trouble.

In the skies above, Amaterasu fired at the swarming Festum, killing a few, before...

Before throwing his weapon at the Ousia-Type, an effort which was promptly made useless as the lesser winged eyeball Festum threw themselves into the path of it.

...

Neun... Neun was shooting at the Sphinx-E that had generated the shield. With the rifle. And not the two fuckmassive cannons attached to the mech.

The Sphinx-E was just walking closer, letting the rifle shots bounce off the shield.

When this battle is over, a certain few pilots will be having a talking to.

The cannon Sphinx-E raised its arm, and sent out a stream of fire towards Tsukuyomi, which was hot enough to melt a forearm off of it, and then one of the four Aegis Shield projectors.

Susanoo and Zwölf were both engaged with their respective Festum. Susanoo tried an overhead attack, and the sword Sphinx-E cut off an arm in response. Zwölf was in close quarters combat with the other brawler Sphinx-E, and it was doing a fairly good job of not getting it. When a flurry of fists left it briefly open to attack, Zwölf didn't hesitate to capitalize, and sliced at it.

It proved to be... an unfortunate decision. The Sphinx-E caught the blade with its abs- literally caught it with its abs; the flesh warping, extending, and then clamping on the blade, snapping it a moment later.

It returned the favour a moment later, slamming a fist into Zwölf's chest and launching the mech into the Welle Shield, following after it, and preparing to attack.

Hmm.

The Welle shield would block any ejection attempts, so Seri wouldn't be able to escape from Zwölf. I might actually have to intervene here to save her life. Might not.

Well, let's see how this goes, first.

179

The brawler Sphinx-E spent the next few moments wailing on Zwölf, slamming fist after fist into the mech. Zwölf couldn't escape, blocked by the Welle shield as it was.

Seri apparently remembered she had other weapons, as the horn that was installed on Zwölf for her very own tendencies extended, shifting forwards. A shield in the shape of a sharp, pointy cone formed, and Zwölf promptly attacked, trying to headbutt the brawler Sphinx-E.

Who, not being an idiot, promptly grabbed the horn, ripped the front half off, and then pulled its arm back, preparing a punch aimed directly for Zwölf's cockpit.

Would it be able to take that... Oh, no. Apparently intervention is necessary. With the force of that punch, she'd die.

Can't have that, can we?

A blue energy field appeared around the cockpit a moment before the Sphinx-E punched it. The armour of the Fafner folded inwards, ripping and tearing the internals, though the shield kept Seri herself safe.

Knocked her right out from the feedback, but safe.

The Sphinx-E pulled back for another punch-

"Touch her and I will obliterate you."

\- And wisely decided to let Zwölf go, the Fafner sliding down the Welle Shield while the Sphinx-E began punching the barrier, trying to get through.

Two red Assimilation Crystals appeared at its shoulders, jutting up out of its body, while a purple field covered its fists. Given... oh, about three minutes, it'd get through the Welle Shield.

Eh.

I looked up.

Amaterasu was hoisting the other gun it held, preparing.. preparing...

Preparing to throw it.

Sui... Sui.

I shook my head in exasperation.

Damn it, Sui.

Amaterasu threw it, and the Ousia banked quickly, the gun flying straight past it, leaving Amaterasu bereft of any weapon whatsoever.

Come on. Sui was meant to be the smart one.

And, now the winged eyeball Festum were heading towards it. And he didn't have anything to defend himself.

Is anybody here doing anything right?

Neun... was shooting at the barrier Sphinx-E with the giant cannons.

Finally.

Not that it was actually helping, since the blasts were being blocked by shields. Of course, Neun just kept firing, ineffectually blasting the barriers even as the Sphinx-E walked closer.

Susanoo... Being overwhelmed. He only had a single arm left now, and using a single Thermotics Blade to block four blades... Yeah. Actually, I had to give him points for managing to not have gotten skewered already.

Tsukuyomi? Just standing there.

I sighed.

And this was Tatsumiya's defence force.

"Honestly." I spoke with the Mir. "They are doing terribly."

The Mir agreed with me.

I frowned.

And yet, I could sense... an almost eager anticipation from it.

What are you up to, Mir?

I... I felt the Mir... Generate a Field?

Why was the Mir generating a Field?

Where- In the Well of Urd. Why would it be generating a Field in the Well of Ur-

Ṕ̶̷u̵̕͞l̀s̷͞e̡͝.

Oh.

That's why.

It is... somewhat hard to put what I was sensing into words. Nevertheless: I felt the Mir... connect with the Fafners, for lack of better words, and through the Fafners, their pilots. An interesting thing to watch, to be certain, but more interesting was what came after.

Through the connection, all three parties were changed. The Mir was altered the least, changing slightly as it incorporated new information. The Fafners changed further, their cores evolving, growing, becoming more complex and more powerful. The way they connected with the pilots was altered, slightly.

The pilots changed the most, and that was the Mir's intention. It altered them directly, changed them, introduced... something new. Power- Psychic in nature, one for each of the pilots. Different for all of them.

Assimilation crystals covered Zwölf, coating it in shimmering green. More assimilation crystals spread over Neun's hands, and then partially consumed the rifle it was holding. Tsukuyomi's Aegis Shield shifted from blue to green, strengthening as it did; the cannon Sphinx-E no longer able to damage it. Similar to Neun, Amaterasu's hands were consumed by assimilation crystals, which extended outwards, taking the rough shape of a sword. Susanoo, about to be run through by the sword Sphinx-E, was consumed in a green-black Worm Sphere.

The crystals that covered Zwölf shattered, and the Fafner stood back up. The ruined, broken armour was gone, and the mech was in absolutely pristine condition.

Neun fired again, and the bolt that came out this time was dozens of times more powerful. It pierced the two shields with ease, and then tore through the Sphinx-E's chest, before detonating with a massive explosion.

With Amaterasu, the crystals shattered to reveal two new weapons, which Sui shortly put to good use by actually firing at the swarm this time.

Susanoo vanished only moments before it would be skewered, appearing several hundred meters away from the Festum, now standing upright.

Tsukuyomi's barrier remained solid as the cannon Sphinx-E continued to fire at it. It finally started moving again, charging forwards, before the Aegis Shield projectors shifted, and the shield itself launched forwards, bending and warping around the Sphinx-E, imprisoning its arms.

Out of nowhere superpowers are not something I'd expect from Fafner- but then again, Mark Sein. Of course, this being Fafner, it probably also has some form of horrific cost to go with it that will only show up later on when it becomes suitably dramatic.

Oh well.

Zwölf grabbed the brawler Sphinx-E, the energy field around the horn shining green. Another green-black Worm Sphere appeared not long after, which rapidly consumed both. A typical Worm Sphere wouldn't have been a normal concern for the Festum, but it wasn't just a typical Worm Sphere. It hid the fact that the Sphinx-E was assimilated by Zwölf, though that wouldn't be seen by anybody else.

Let's see, everybody else... Tsukuyomi was pulling the Scarab-Type's trick of generating twisting energy planes; and had literally just twisted the Sphinx-E' core in two separate directions.

Neun had shot its Sphinx-E in the chest, and was now moving to support the rest of their fellows.

Susanoo... currently teleporting around like crazy, avoid the slashes of the blade- oh, no, there he goes. Sword straight through the back of the attacking Sphinx-E, into the core, then teleporting out before the Worm Sphere detonation occurred.

Amaterasu... Could apparently just teleport weapons into his enemy's core. Each one appeared with a flash of green light, until he had summoned six Luger Lances- which he could apparently also remote control, because each one opened up and fired directly into the Ousia's core.

That's... actually pretty dangerous. Of course, the resulting Worm Sphere detonation consumed each of the Luger Lances, which I couldn't help but see as a waste. He didn't need nearly that many weapons to kill his enemy, but whatever.

That left only the Ousia's swarm- but Orihime had apparently held some Norns in reserve, because more of them were emerging from the ocean.

I nodded.

Yeah, they had that in hand.

I looked out over the ocean.

Not going to show up, Walker?

Well, whatever. I'll get him sooner or later.

But first...

I turned back towards the fight.

Some pilots were going to be having a talking to.

180

"So let me just start by saying that was the most terrible display of tactics and coordination that I have ever seen in a Fafner battle." I appeared in the room suddenly, drawing startled noises from the inhabitants. "I mean, Seri literally would have died if I hadn't intervened on her behalf." I looked around.

Sui, Reo, Mimika, Seri, Rina, Kenji, and Chizuru looked back at me. The latter two quickly went back to doing examinations, though Kenji kept an ear out.

"You were doing so well last time, but you completely dropped the ball here." I pulled a chair out, turning it around and sitting in it. "So, let me ask; do you want me to chew you out here and now, or should I do it later?"

Sui looked down, while Rina frowned, Mimika shrank in her seat, Reo grimaced, and Seri looked to the side.

"Let's hear it." Seri eventually spoke.

I nodded. "Well, let's do this individually. Sui." He straightened up suddenly as I called him. "You're smart. You're incredibly intelligent. Why in the world would you decide to use your damned guns as oversized throwing knives?"

"I... made a poor decision-"

"No." I interrupted. "A poor decision is deciding to use one of your guns as a throwing knife, and then not even attaching a Gundrake to it in order to guide it. You know. Like you did in your last battle against the Festum." I pointed out. "Doing the exact same thing with your only other weapon far and away exceeds 'poor decision'. I cannot possibly express just how terrible of an idea this is."

He nodded, somewhat meek.

"Rina." The girl flinched slightly as I turned to her. "Your Fafner is equipped with two gigantic cannons. Your reaction to your comparatively tiny sniper rifle failing to breach your enemy's shield should not be continue shooting it."

"The cannons didn't help!"

"Yes. Which brings me to my next point." I held my hand out, and generated a hologram of Neun. "You pilot a Fafner. These are, I will remind you, incredibly mobile machines. Your enemy was slowly walking towards you, and does not have an omnidirectional barrier. What you should have done was moved away to get a better line of fire, or create your own by messing with its footing." The hologram shifted, and I showed Neun shooting the ground beneath it, causing it to stumble. "What you shouldn't have done was just stand there. Mimika."

She shifted slightly. "The same extends to you. You don't have Rina's excuse of having two heavy cannons to lug around. You are exactly as mobile as most other Fafners."

"I... had a shield?"

"The Aegis Shield system does not notably decrease your mobility. It is, further, not straining the barrier if you dodge the shots rather than let them hit." I pointed out. "The Aegis Shield means you have more ability to resist the firepower of your enemy; which only heightens if you can actually dodge the shots. You need to learn how to dodge."

I turned to Seri. "Seri. Your enemy was fighting at melee range. Your enemy was, further, even better than you at such close range combat. What should you do?"

"Back... away?"

I nodded. "Yes. Take it out of its preferred field of combat. Use medium to long range weapons. Do not attempt to engage it in melee." I looked at her, attempting to impress just how serious I was about this matter simply by gaze alone. "Make no mistake here: If I had not intervened, you would absolutely be dead right now."

She gave a shaky nod.

"Reo." I turned to the boy. "Now, I'm not going to lie, you actually did rather well, but what I said for Seri also goes for you. Engaging your enemy in melee combat when they are better at it than you is a completely terrible idea. I will admit, you're skilled with swords, and I'm rather impressed that you managed to not die even when you had an arm of your Fafner cut off; but I'm sure you now understand why it's a bad idea, yes?"

He scowled, but nodded.

I straightened up. "Good. Now, finally? Work together. Your complete lack of coordination with each other only hurt you. Make sure you have a plan, and make sure you have each other's back. Otherwise, you'll get yourselves killed."

My face twisted into a very menacing grin, something which immediately caused everybody watching to recoil. "Luckily, I can help with that."

"Can..." Mimika began. "We refuse?"

"No." I smiled. "The next time you're ready for training, I'm going to do my level best to ensure that you understand tactics, cooperation, and how to not get destroyed by Festum. May as well work out what you can do with your abilities, too. Now, if you'll excuse, I'm going to go chat with Orihime."

Where... there. Teleport-

"Hello Orihime." I spoke.

The girl in question turned slightly, acknowledging me. She kept walking, and I quickly stepped into place beside her. "I have to say, I wasn't expecting that. Your Mir actually managed to surprise me."

"How often does that happen?" She asked, honestly curious.

"Not that often, these days." I shrugged. "Anyway, we need to talk. That battle today was absolutely atrocious, and I'm rather interested in making sure it doesn't happen again."

She looked at me, frowning. "You said that you wouldn't interfere in our battles."

"Which still holds true." I nodded. "That doesn't mean that I cannot provide your pilots with valuable experience. I intend to train them so that they don't do a repeat of today's fight."

She stopped, turning to me. "Train?"

"I am a Festum." I pointed out. "And I have quite a number of tricks up my sleeves. I can give the pilots opponents to fight against, safely, so that they can learn how to use their new gifts, and develop strategies for Walker."

She gave a considering hum. "It would allow the pilots to grow, and through that, the Mir."

"Exactly." I smiled. "I'll be honest, I'm only asking because of the agreement we made. Yes or no?"

She turned away, still frowning. "I will consider it."


	19. Chapter 19: Logs 181-190

181

I rushed backwards, avoiding the edge of a Luger Lance by mere millimeters. I leapt into the air, twisting over a slash of a Thermotics Blade, before I threw my left arm out.

My glowing fist tore straight through Zwölf's head, ripping the chest open in the same movement. Assimilation crystals spread from my hand, over Zwölf's chest, before I landed, yanking Zwölf backwards.

I pulled the Fafner up, throwing it forwards into a glowing green field, which wrapped around it, temporarily trapping the Fafner.

I raised my hand, a blue energy field springing into existence above me, sheltering me from a few shots, curtesy of Amaterasu. I quickly moved again, dodging another shot from Neun.

Susanoo hadn't pressed the assault, instead leaping backwards, Thermotics Blade and Luger Lance at the ready. Tsukuyomi had released the shield surrounding Zwölf, and the mech had regenerated the damage it had suffered already.

Amaterasu had landed next to Neun, weapons brandished.

I hummed.

They were good, I'd admit.

But they had so long to go.

I held my arms out, my flesh warping and bubbling. Two more arms grew from my sides, one a sword, and the other a wide, flat arm, which was shortly consumed by assimilation crystals.

I chuckled.

Tsukuyomi went backwards, deploying its shield in front of Neun and Amaterasu. Susanoo and Zwölf charged forwards, both of them brandishing weapons.

My arms changed shape again, all four of them changing into blades. I darted forwards, preparing to meet them at their own game.

Susanoo vanished just before I did, reappearing above. I shifted my upper arms to guard, but my lower arms still struck at Zwölf, both meeting its Thermotics Blade.

Tsukuyomi was holding still, as was Neun. Amaterasu, however, had holstered both weapons, and now had its hands pointed towards me, fingers splayed open.

Zwölf forced my lower arms to the side, while Susanoo struck my upper arms hard.

It was, at that moment, that I felt a... tug, for lack of better word.

Not a moment later, I vanished, reappearing in front of Amaterasu. Neun's sniper rifle was pressed into my chest, directly over my core.

For a moment, I debated continuing the fight. It'd be easy, a simple teleportation to avoid Neun's shot, then striking at Amaterasu to make sure he couldn't summon me again, before disabling Tsukyomi or Neun...

I decided not to. It was a good strategy, I'd admit, and this victory had been earned.

Neun fired, sending a round straight through my chest, and straight through my Sphinx-E's core.

I plucked the psychic structure from the core before it was destroyed, preserving it for later use. The Sphinx-E promptly detonated, a Worm Sphere consuming it.

From the lighthouse, my Envoy nodded.

I vanished, reappearing at Kazuki's restaurant. With a stretch, I flopped down into the seat, my arms behind my head.

Kazuki looked over. "How did they do?"

"They're... getting pretty good." I offered. I leaned forwards, propping my elbows up on the table, meshing my fingers together, and resting my head on my hands. "They actually have some semblance of strategy now." I hummed. "I think I'll just throw a swarm at them next and see how they go."

Kazuki 'hmm'ed.

I paused. "Hello, Soushi."

He grunted, barely paying attention, engrossed in a data display.

"What about... their assimilation phenomena?" Kazuki asked.

I frowned. "Doesn't seem to be a thing. They don't even have those rings around their fingers that marks every other pilot on this island. If it's actually happening, I can't detect it."

"Neither can medical." Soushi looked up.

"Oh, so you were listening." I spoke. "What are you looking at there, anyway?"

"Pilot data." He answered. He took a sip of his coffee. "Old and new."

"Ours?" Kazuki asked.

"Ours." Soushi confirmed. "This isn't just limited to the new pilots. The state of all older pilots is also slowly growing better. It's like the assimilation phenomena are fading as time passes. However, we don't know what's causing it."

I... could probably take a guess as to what was responsible for that. Teaching the Mir how Humans worked, and, of course, how to reverse assimilation... Yeah, probably my fault.

If that was what was actually happening, of course.

Oh well.

"Not something I can confirm for either of you, or, at least, not right now." Actually, let's get that started. I teleported over to Soushi, who twitched at my sudden appearance. I held my hand out, a few bright blue assimilation crystals growing out of the back. "Here, hold still."

Let's see, deep scan, get a full set of data I can compare it to later on...

"What are you doing?" Soushi asked, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Getting a scan of your body now, so that I have something to compare to later." And... done. I turned away, this time holding my arm out towards Kazuki. "Now for you..."

He looked at me strangely as I scanned- mostly because he couldn't feel or see anything that would actually indicate that.

Anyway... done. Probably would have gone faster if I had actually bothered to use something other than what was the equivalent of an extremely underpowered Protocrafter, but hey.

The assimilation crystals shrank back into my hand, leaving unmarred glowing blue flesh behind.

Hmm. The signs of genetic manipulation were there, though the new pilots were more thoroughly modified than Soushi and Kazuki. At some point, I'd have to get scans of the other Fafner pilots, too, as Kazuki and Soushi did not make a good baseline.

Mostly because both of them had their lives protected by Festum. Soushi wasn't even entirely Human any more- his body certainly seemed to be, and, genetically speaking, actually was, but there were traces of psychic energy about him that marked him as different. Kazuki had the same, though it was less obvious, and slightly different from Soushi.

"I'll check you both again later, get another scan to compare to." I stated. "See if I can actually figure out what's going on with your assimilation phenomena."

Hmm. Might have to set up an experiment to monitor the new pilots more closely while they're piloting the Fafner. Wouldn't be too difficult; just something to continuously scan their bodies and watch for any changes. A dedicated Protocrafter inside the cockpit would do it, or a larger one attached to the Fafner itself. Hell, I could make a Festum to do it, though in that case I'd need to make sure that it didn't interfere with the pilot's connection with the Fafner.

Not that much of a problem.

Tomorrow, then. I'm sure the pilots will enjoy-

Oh, hello there.

My head turned to the side, and I looked out across the ocean. Soushi's head tilted slightly as he noticed the action, while Kazuki made a noise of confusion.

"I'll be back later." I spoke.

A shimmering blue-black Worm Sphere consumed me, before fading out of existence.

A third of the way across the world, I reappeared again, my Worm Sphere expanding from nothing before vanishing again. I dropped to the ground, ignoring the startled exclamations from those around me.

I straightened up, mock-dusting myself off, before looking around.

Whole bunch of people staring at me. Maya, Akira, Hiroto, Miwa, Miwa's mother, Emery, bunch of other Esperantos, Narain, a few Fafner pilots-

My gaze briefly stopped upon a blond haired man, who stared back in shock, before continuing onwards.

A puppet. Hadn't been expecting that.

Didn't matter too much.

The room was fairly decorated. This was an important place to the Srinagar group.

"La..zuli." Narain sounded shocked, before he shook his head, composing himself.

"Narain." I greeted. The words also caused a bit of a shock among those who hadn't known of a Festum that could speak.

I turned to face the center of the room.

A green crystalline pillar greeted me, stretching from the floor to the ceiling, and through that, far into the sky.

"You wished to speak, Ashoka?"

182

The green crystalline pillar pulsed, lighting up the room.

"You want my help?" I asked. "With what?"

Another pulse came as the Mir spoke again.

"Altair?" I looked to the side.

Miwa, standing next to her mother, looked back, her eyes wide with curiosity.

I frowned as I considered what it had spoken about. "Well, yes?" I turned back to it. "Altair is nine hundred and thirty two million kilometres away from this planet, and Miwa is four years old. As powerful and capable as she may be, communicating with Altair over such massive distances is still outside of her capabilities."

Yet another pulse.

"She doesn't need to do it now." I pointed out. "Altair won't arrive for several months, at least. Waiting until Altair is closer to Earth will put much less strain upon Miwa."

There was an almost electric humming, this time.

"Who?" I asked. "The only beings on this planet that could mess that up are the Neo United Nations, Walker, and Floater. The last is apparently content to just not show up, the second is too terrified to show its face, and the first isn't powerful enough to actually pose a threat."

A dull chime.

"You'd have a point if not for the fact that in order to get to you, they need to go through me." I folded my arms across my chest. "And that's not going to happen."

Another hum.

"If Altair is coming too slowly for your liking, then why don't you take Miwa to Altair?"

"Wait, what?" Miwa's mother spoke, suddenly very concerned.

I looked at her. "Ashoka is concerned about the impacts other groups could have on the attempts to contact Altair." And back to Ashoka. "But there is no group that can hold that much of an impact. None are powerful enough to interrupt it."

A long, drawn out tone this time.

"I could help, yes; but the point stands in the fact that it's not necessary. Wait a few months for Altair to come closer, then try talking to it again." I stated. "Which, I have to note, comes with the added benefit of allowing Miwa time to grow into her power. Sure, it might not be too much in the grand scheme of things, but it will be all the more helpful when the time comes that the two actually talk."

An almost considering rumbling.

"Yes?" I nodded. "While it would be somewhat beneficial in order to secure Altair's benevolence as soon as possible, waiting long enough to ensure that we can actually secure it is, in my opinion, a far better plan."

An electric crackling.

"Thank you." I smiled. "Do you need anything else?"

A short pulse.

"Right." I turned away. "I'll be taking my leave, then. Goodbye, all." I spared one last glance at the puppet, before a Worm Sphere consumed me.

A moment later, I reappeared at Tatsumiya Island.

Ooh, the younger pilots are here.

"I'm back."

"You left?"

"Ashoka wished to speak with me." I said. "Anyway, I have an idea, so..."

"Ma'am." Her subordinate greeted her. "You have two scheduled meetings for today. One is at 1 PM, and the next takes place at 4 PM."

"Good." She nodded. "Are there any outstanding items that require my attention?"

"No ma'am." He shook his head. "Just the typical paperwork."

She barely acknowledged it as she opened the door to her office.

It was, as always, clean, pristine. Just as she had left it-

Save for one little thing.

Her eyes fell upon a... machine? Sitting on her couch. Its head was pointed in her direction, and its arms were folded up in its lap.

For a moment she simply stared at it.

"Ma'am?" Her subordinate asked, a concerned look playing over his face. "Is there something wrong?"

"Tell me Michael, what is it you see when you look over there?" She pointed at the robot.

Michael frowned in confusion, but looked in the direction she pointed. He didn't react as she expected; instead of becoming alarmed, his face instead turned quizzical. "A... normal seat, ma'am?"

She stepped into the room. The robot's head followed her, a mechanical whir sounding out as it did. She looked back over her shoulder, and noted that Michael didn't seem to notice.

"Cancel the meetings for today. Give the reason 'BI-U-23' when they ask." She frowned.

"Ma'am?" He asked again.

"Now, Michael."

He flinched a bit, before bowing and hurrying out the room. He shut the door behind him, leaving her alone with the robot with a soft 'click'.

"Hester Gallop." The machine addressed her.

She took a moment to examine it. It was a tall and thin machine, almost skeletal. The chest was a mix of smooth plated armour and a black mesh, connecting to two thin arms, a thin neck, and a very thin waist; more of a spine, really. The legs were only slightly thicker at the arms, and ended in two-clawed feet. The head, much like the rest of its body, was smooth, polished curves. The hands held five fingers, each one twice as long as a normal human's, and seemingly very delicate.

The form was humanoid, but obviously inhuman.

"I am Commander Drich." The voice... she couldn't place as any particular gender. "And I need to speak with you about a... refugee problem."

What.

"See, over the course of the next... oh, decade or so, I'm going to need to ensure that at least one billion Humans can be cared for." The machine straightened up. "I also need to ensure that no further refugees are unduly created. By which, I of course refer to the Neo United Nation's plan to attack Srinagar, steal its Mir, and kill as many of the inhabitants as possible."

That was highly classified information, she knew.

"Hester Gallop." There was an almost considering tone in the voice. "If I told you that Humanity is no longer at risk of destruction by Festum and Mir, and that it's time to move on to rebuilding and sustaining life... what would you do?"

183

"I would call you liar." She said. She moved around the table, my head following her. "Festum still exist in this planet."

"Of which, a grand total of one is a confirmed hostile." I noted. "Two Mir are beneficial to Humanity, a third is keeping to itself, and the fourth holds no particular opinion on the matter."

"All are monsters." She stated. "And they are still calling more to this world. If Humanity is to survive, we must destroy it, and them, in order to return the absolute right to exist on this planet to Humans."

"You truly believe that, don't you?" I asked. "Funny, really."

"Is the salvation of Humanity truly amusing to you?"

"No. What I find amusing is the fact that you can say that, while the truth of the matter is that the Festum have killed less Humans than the Human Army itself has." Owing to their... rather free use of nuclear weapons. "And plans to kill even more."

"We do what we must to save Humanity." She stared at me, her expression set in a frown.

"No you don't." I shook my head. "Honestly your organisation is repugnant to me. You seem to exist solely so you can maximize the 'hard people making hard decisions doing hard things while hard' aspect as much as possible." I said, my voice flat. "Upon encountering an island where people lived in peace and harmony with a Mir, you invaded it, killed every single inhabitant, and enslaved the Mir. Using the enslaved Mir, which you could barely even control, you had it pump out thousands of low quality Fafner cores, while also making an incredibly powerful Azazel-Type Festum from it, and then using said Festum to direct other Festum towards Humans who want nothing to do with you. You also proceeded to use it to create hundreds of Puppets, creating and erasing personalities as you saw fit. Your actions have, in ninety nine percent of cases, made the situation worse for everybody involved."

I paused.

Okay, got a bit more ranty there than I had wanted. "And to top it all off, you don't even have the power to do what you want. You could hardly even fight against the Festum; and Altair is stronger still. No matter what you think you can throw at it, you simply do not stand a chance in the face of its power. You would be wiped out, all of your efforts to stop it amounting to nothing."

"We would be wiped out regardless if it is allowed to exist on this planet."

I shook my head again. "No. Altair is not hostile to Humanity. Several groups are, at this very moment, working on making sure that it stays that way. And in this particular scenario, doing your usual thing will undoubtedly result in every single Human on this planet dying. Coexistence is the only way you will survive."

"There can be no coexistence with monsters. The Festum destroy us at every opportunity."

Was she really... Oh for fucks sake. "Okay, you're not listening, so I'll put this in terms that you can understand. Either you help do this, or I will wipe out the totality of your military power, expose every little dirty secret the Neo United Nations has, and tell the populace at large about the plan where you want to wipe out all of Humanity except for fifty thousand people alongside the Festum." I stated. "We'll both get to see how the uninformed react when they find out about that. I don't think it will end well for you or the other people who know about and support the plan."

She glared at me.

I stared back, implacable. "Your choice. Who knows, maybe, thirty years down the line, you'll look back at this incident and shake your head at how silly you were being."

Come on, be reasonable. Think about my actions, realize that you're hopelessly outclassed, and I won't have to do something you'd regret.

With an expression that might as well have been carved from stone, she spoke again. "These... Humans. Who are they?"

She was already planning a betrayal, scenarios of being able to nuke us all at once running through her mind, but...

Worst comes to worse, I can deal with that.

It took three days, but the Neo United Nations ultimately agreed. Some (a lot) backroom threats had been unfortunately necessary to stop them from doing something stupid, but hey.

When I had told them of how it was possible to restore Humans who had been assimilated, they initially hadn't believed me. To prove it, I had offered them the opportunity to get a couple of their scientists / medical specialists / engineers / whatever to examine what I had going.

I rapped my fingers against the bluish crystals that held the slowly forming body of the Humans I was restoring. Strictly speaking, the slow reconstruction of the body wasn't entirely necessary, as I could just create all of it at once when the mindstate was repaired, but... Well, no reason not to do it the way I was.

"My god."

I looked behind me, my body whirring mechanically as it did. "I take it that you have the proof you need?"

The NUN group were still fiddling around with their instruments, but one of them nodded. "I... We should. Oh god there are so many."

That there were.

I turned around as one of the crystals above pulsed. It vanished shortly afterwards, teleporting to the facilities underground, the person inside waking.

She'd be greeted by a group of people who would help her get used to how things happened over here. Usually, a few groups rotated around the clock, ensuring that there was always a few people down there to deal with the near constant, if ultimately slow, influx of new people.

Ideally, I'd be able to get the NUN to start building up residences, expand their food production, energy generation, and the like, so that I would be able to start shifting people over to them. Nine hundred million people living in one small space like where I currently was would be a bit annoying, and I really didn't want to care for them forever.

Should that go well, and assuming the NUN didn't try and kidnap / experiment on people who had been restored or whatever, then I'd be able to maintain a fairly stable population around here, giving time for the NUN to build up their own facilities over the next decade or so.

I... really did hope that things went well. It'd be a real shame if I had to step in just because somebody tried to do something stupid.

184

Hmm.

I was, once again, at the Tatsumiya Island Lighthouse. It was in the afternoon, and, for once, the camouflage shield was down.

The reason for that was the transport slowly coming closer. Aboard were the people of Tatsumiya Island who had gone to Srinagar.

Despite the rather large and obvious target, defended by only a few Fafners, Walker wasn't attacking. I mean, sure, he wouldn't have gotten anywhere if he did, but still...

I didn't think he'd pass up the opportunity to cause at least a small amount of suffering. He was being fairly silent, actually; he'd only sent a few small groups of Festum at the island, each of which had been easily taken down.

Up to something? Probably. I just wasn't sure what, yet.

Oh well. Whatever it was, I'd be prepared. I'd bring out a Castle if I really had to.

I sighed.

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

Bleh. I need somebody to mess with.

Where's Orihime?

In the Well of Urd. Why is she down in the Well of Urd?

Oh well. Must be fairly serious if she's down there.

I'll mess with her later.

I looked out across the ocean again. Idly, I noticed the transport splashing down, gliding across the water towards one of the islands. With the transport now on the water, the camouflage shield shimmered into being again, seemingly altering the position of the sun.

The hangar bay doors opened, and a number of flashing lights shone out, guiding the transport in.

Hey hey, there's an idea. I could mess with them while Orihime does... whatever it is that she's doing.

I stood up, smiling.

This should be fun.

"You're worried." I couldn't help but note.

Orihime frowned, but said nothing. Instead, she simply stood there, looking at the Gordian Crystals inside the Well of Urd.

"You know, you've been down here for three hours." I stated. "You've even got Seri concerned."

"Something is coming." She spoke.

"From Walker?"

She nodded.

"Is that why you ordered the reactivation of Mark Sein and Mark Nicht?" I asked. It had been a curious move, given how well they seemed to be doing.

She nodded again.

Fascinating.

"So, something, whatever it is, has you worried, even with the two Salvator models." I hmmed. "Sounds intriguing."

"The island will disappear from this world soon after it comes." She stated.

Okay, honestly. She keeps doing that. "You know, you keep saying things about the future, and you always sound so certain." I walked forwards, coming to a stop at her side. "Why is that?"

For a few moments, she held still. I could sense her considering it, debating with herself.

Finally, she raised her arm, and gestured towards one of the Gordian Crystals.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Touch it." She said. "And you'll see."

Hmm?

Well, whatever.

I reached out, and brushed my fingers against the crystal-

It was evening. The sun was setting. It was in the midst of a battle.

Lazuli stood at the Lighthouse. The Core stood beside it.

Both stared out across the water, towards a specific area. It glowed, pulsed, with purple light.

"Your island won't survive that." Lazuli spoke. "Walker didn't hold back this time."

The Fafners were fighting. Mark Sein and Mark Nicht were each engaged in combat with a new Festum type. They were winning, but it was delaying them significantly. Susanoo, Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Zwölf, Neun, and Drei fought with lesser Festum.

Walker was doing its best to keep the Fafners away from the instrument of their destruction.

The purple light grew, intensified, every moment.

Sein attempted to attack it, but was blocked by the new Festum types. Too late to stop it, there was a roaring sound as the purple light eclipsed the sun.

All became black.

\- and pulled away not a moment later.

"You can see the future and you didn't tell me?" I put a mock hurt tone in my voice.

But still, interesting. One hell of a Festum would be needed to even slow down Mark Sein and Mark Nicht. And yet, Walker would create something regardless.

"This is serious!" Orihime turned, suddenly angry. "The Mir, the people, the island! Every single one of them is in danger! Can't you be a little serious for once?!"

"You don't know what that black place was, do you?" I asked, somewhat amused.

"You do?" Took the steam right out of her.

I laughed, chuckling to myself. "If the future comes by as you've seen it, then you have no idea how correct you are when you say that the island will disappear from this world. But the thing that makes it funny is that you lack context. You don't understand what that place is, or what it means." I tutted.

I reached out and touched the crystal again. This time, there was no sudden vision, which was sad, because I really wanted to study it a bit more.

"Now how does this prescience work?" I asked. "Is it predictive analysis, or something more than that? Is the Mir actually looking through time, gaining information from the future?"

She stared at me, slack jawed and terribly confused. "Are you... serious?"

"Oh, very. I really want to know how that ability works." I turned to her, smiling. "Why do you ask?"

"This island and everything on it will disappear, and you just don't care."

"Oh, Orihime." I stepped closer, kneeling in front of her. My hands came up to rest on her shoulder, and I looked her in the eye. "I do care. But you've completely misinterpreted what's going to happen. This island will disappear from this world-" I stressed. "- but it will be safe. Everybody on it will be safe. The Mir will be safe. You will be safe. And do you want to know why?"

She looked at me as if she could pry the answer from my head if she just stared hard enough. "Why?"

"Well, you see, it's fairly simple. Walker is not the one that will cause this island to disappear. I am."

185

"I'm back, and I brought little miss grouchy." I announced, walking through the door into Kazuki's restaurant.

Said little miss grouchy followed me a moment later, still scowling. She'd been doing it ever since I refused to explain what she'd seen. I said it wasn't important, but she clearly disagreed.

"Orihime-chan!" Seri smiled, quickly heading over- though stopping for a moment when Orihime looked at her, still scowling.

"Hello Kouyou." I walked past him, getting a nod in return. I took my seat in the corner table, where Soushi was already sitting. He seemed rather tired, actually, as did Kazuki, who was cooking.

Soushi barely even acknowledged me when I sat down. "Okay, first Orihime, now you. What's wrong?"

"Mark Nicht." He said after a moment. "It... was harder to awaken than I had been expecting."

Oh ho? "How so?"

He looked up, giving me a considering look. "Mark Nicht was once piloted by a Festum. There were... more Human minds remaining than I had known."

Idun... Yes, it had assimilated Humans, hadn't it? Were those still within Mark Nicht?

Huh. I would have thought that they'd go to the North Pole Mir rather than the Fafner.

"I'll have to see about extracting them, then." I hmmed. "How many?"

"Hundreds, at least." He said. His eyes briefly drifted closed, before he shook, and straightened up.

I held my hand up, blue assimilation crystals growing out of it. "You seem pretty tired."

Let's see, scan...

"The experience was surprisingly draining. More than it should have been."

"Hmm." The assimilation crystals shrank back into my hand, and I looked at him. "Well, you look healthy to me. I'd chalk it up to psychological stress, but things are rarely that simple when talking about Fafners." Huh. "Your assimilation phenomena has regressed."

He nodded. "We were tested after Sein and Nicht were reactivated." He held up his hands, showing me the rings around his fingers.

They were smaller, only a few millimetres thick instead of nearly a centimetre.

Interesting. As far as I was aware, that particular phenomena simply didn't form on the younger pilots, but, if Soushi's and Kazuki's had shrunken over time instead of disappearing all at once, then perhaps it served as an indicator to how far the assimilation phenomena had progressed?

If the younger pilots were left in their Fafners for several hours, and then pulled out, would the phenomena appear?

Hmm.

Something to test later.

"What about the other older pilots?" I asked.

"All of them share what's happening to us. Regressing assimilation phenomena, and decreased size in the visible phenomena."

Huh. "Fascinating."

"Indeed- Ah, thank you Kazuki." He smiled, taking a plate from Kazuki, who smiled back before heading away again.

I watched him as he went, before turning back to Soushi. "Might as well retrieve the Humans as soon as possible. Mark Nicht is with the rest of the Fafners, isn't it?"

He nodded.

"Thank you."

I teleported away a moment later.

With a flash of light, I appeared in the Burgs. Several Fafners were around, but directly in front of me was the only one I was interested in.

Mark Nicht was a massive thing, with a somewhat odd shape. It was very wide, and also had very long arms, stretching down to the ankles, in contrast to the other more Human-proportioned Fafners. Two 'wings' were attached, each one made of four large blades, connected to the Fafner with cables.

They were hardly the machine's most dangerous aspect.

I floated forwards, and touched the smooth purple metal. Reaching out mentally, I touched its mind-

Immediately, green assimilation crystals burst into being over my hand, as Mark Nicht attempted to consume me. I pressed back, halting the attempted assimilation, and then connected with it.

I didn't want to hurt it, and I let it know that. All I wanted were the Human minds that it held within, and so, I asked for them.

Mark Nicht was a fair bit more intelligent than the other Fafners, excepting, perhaps, Mark Sein. It was a fairly primal intelligence, admittedly, and also certainly not one that could be compared to a normal Human's.

It was, perhaps, understandable then that instead of obliging and passing over the Human minds, Mark Nicht kept trying to assimilate me, bringing its not-inconsiderable power to bear.

It was not the most intelligent decision Mark Nicht could have made.

I matched it bit for bit. And then I started pushing back. The assimilation crystals on my hand slowly shrank away, and then began expanding over Mark Nicht itself. It was a contest of wills and power- and I beat it in both cases.

I pushed deep into its mind, doing my best to not cause it pain. Mark Nicht would be Soushi's Fafner, after all, and I didn't intend to cause him any problems.

Realizing that I was the superior in that mode of conflict, Mark Nicht instead resorted to something else, the purple metal heating to a red glow, distorted air warping light.

I waited until it would start doing damage to Alvis itself to take the heat, absorbing it and snap-freezing Mark Nicht's body. With the heat no longer an option, it moved on to the next, and this time struck with crackling trails of purple electricity.

It abandoned that particular tactic shortly afterwards, as I simply absorbed it without a problem. Aviator could generate and handle far larger amounts, and subsequently, so could I.

Finally, it pulled the last tactic, and a shimmering purple-black Worm Sphere formed in front of it, which quickly began to expand.

I simply took a larger form, roughly the same size as Nicht and slightly less than an eighth of the size of my Envoy-Type's 'true' form.

I gripped the expanding Worm Sphere, holding it in my hand. It kept trying to expand, but it did so oddly now that I was holding it, acting more like a balloon that was being filled to the brim while somebody clenched it.

Fittingly, the metaphor held as the Worm Sphere expanded too much, and 'popped', dissipating harmlessly.

I reached out, and touched Mark Nicht's chest. I dove into its mind, and it fought every step of the way, incredibly stubborn for a barely sapient mind.

I gave a sigh of annoyance.

"Honestly, you are one stubborn Fafner." I grunted. "You're just doing this to be contrary, aren't you?"

186

Another week, another battle.

Walker didn't even seem to be trying anymore.

I leaned against the railing of the Tatsumiya Island lighthouse, watching the battle from afar.

A couple Sphinx-Es, a bunch of Sphinx-As, and a single Sphinx-B. Nothing the pilots couldn't deal with- they'd been curbstomping the last couple attacks, and it was only going to worse for Walker, as they now had support in the form of Maya, Hiroto, Akira, Sakura, and Canon.

It had taken roughly three days for the Mir to give the latter five its gifts, their new powers. All were fairly interesting.

Maya, perhaps befitting of a sniper, had the ability to control the trajectories of her shots. She could freely alter the speed and direction of anything she fired, and as a result was often pulling her best Rip Van Winkle impression.

Hiroto had an ability similar to Mimika, in that they could both had enhanced shields, but where Mimika's were more powerful and larger, Hiroto's shields instead absorbed things, before spitting them back out with even more power.

Akira could generate Fields in which both himself and his allies were enhanced, becoming stronger, tougher, and faster. Their abilities were also suitably enhanced, which meant he was often paired with Mimika or Hiroto who would defend him while he bolstered his allies.

Sakura, piloting the redesigned Mark Drei, received a rather weird ability that was tied to the unmanned Fafners, the four Trooper-models, that Mark Drei was linked with. She could control them all as if they were her own Fafner, and she could also create more of them, just generating new Trooper models more or less at will. She was subsequently usually staying inside Akira's Field, which also affected her Troopers and made them even more dangerous than a horde of perfectly coordinated, significantly powerful Fafners already was.

Canon received the ability to see the future. It was a version apparently more suited to the battlefield, because Canon wrecked so much shit after she got it. She fucked up Walker's plans simply because she saw them coming before he could really implement them.

I liked to imagine that it was making him rage a lot, though I couldn't quite confirm it.

Well, I'd know when I assimilated him.

I stood up, turning around. Across the ocean, Maya put down the last Festum with a single, perfectly accurate shot.

I hummed to myself as I walked down the steps of the lighthouse. Whatever he's planning, I hope it comes soon, because this was just boring.

Once again, I stood within the Well of Urd.

This time, I was alone, with nothing but the Tatsumiya Mir to watch me.

I looked at the Gordian Crystals sprouting from the water. The lower parts of the crystals were still straight, near perfect cylinders, but the upper parts had changed significantly, blossoming into a complex crystalline shape.

It looked rather like leaves, actually. It wasn't too large, but it was growing larger with every battle- or, rather, every death.

Every time a Festum was killed, the Gordian Crystals grew and changed. I had a sneaking suspicion that it would also apply for Human lives, but so far, Tatsumiya hadn't lost any.

I could, vaguely, feel the minds of Festum inside. Each and every single Festum that the pilots killed ended up here. Not really thinking, not really doing anything, but not dead, and not returned to nothingness.

I had to wonder how a development like this could come about. The Festum who were killed instead ended up here. How? How did that work? From how far away could it work? Could it be repurposed? If, as I suspected, it could also capture Human minds when they die as it did the Festum, then could the Gordian Crystals be used as a repository to hold the knowledge, thoughts, and personalities of the dead?

So many questions.

And it seemed that the only way I was going to be getting answers was if I asked the Mir.

I... kind of didn't want to. I wanted to figure it out for myself, replicate it using my abilities- but doing so non-invasively was... difficult, at best. Protocrafters wouldn't help all that much in this case, as the abilities of the Gordian Crystals stemmed from psychic power rather than conventional physics. Examining the complex psychic structure would require poking and prodding at it with my own power, which, by definition, was invasive.

It'd be so much easier if another Festum had it. Another hostile Festum, at least, then I could just assimilate them and take it for myself.

Oh well.

"Mir. I would like to ask you some things..."

Oh, I get it now. The Gordian Crystals functioned fairly simply- by using the Mir's phenomenal psychic power, they'd just draw in the mind of every being within range that died.

Where 'range' was defined as the range at which the Mir could mentally contact other beings. So, being generous, most of the planet fell within that range.

It wouldn't work for beings who didn't have minds to draw in -duh-, or on beings who were powerful enough to deny the Mir -such as me-.

The Mir's precognition was a bit more complex. The method behind it was indeed looking through time, and not an advanced data crunching. Use psychic powers to breach the veil of time, and perceive the future.

Not a concept that was alien to me. Altea, in very special circumstances could do exactly that- though the Mir had found a way to do it on demand rather than in those very special circumstances.

The next step, of course, was getting the Mir to teach me how to do that- something which I achieved by trading with it. The trade itself was simple, though finding what the Mir wanted was a bit more tricky. It didn't need the abilities I possessed, as it believed it could develop such on its own time. Far more time consuming, and less likely that the Mir would be able to learn about on its own, had been the data that I held.

And so, that was our trade.

For the Gordian Crystals, I taught the Mir language, tutoring it in the myriad of languages of this planet, dead and alive both. For the Mir's version of precognition, I expanded on what I had previously taught it; and showed it how the rest of Earth's ecosystem worked, in just as much exacting, punishing detail as I had shown it how Humans worked. It was both more and less complex; more because of the sheer variety in life on this world, and less because Humans were the only sapient creatures native to it.

Personally, I thought I was the one who came off better from the deal, but hey.

I certainly wasn't going to complain.

187

The future was an interesting thing to see. To call time a single path from beginning to end was false- instead, it branched, changed, and shifted as it went along.

There was no single future, I found out within seconds. By observing, experiencing, the future, it changed, because new information altered decisions, and actions, which in turn branched out to alter more decisions and actions; Chaos Theory in practice.

Even without seeing the future, nothing was certain until the decision was made. As an example; Orihime had three separate, mutually exclusive paths into the future, all of which dealt with where she was going to eat tonight. The first was Kazuki's restaurant, the second was Seri's house, and the third was with Soushi.

She hadn't yet made the decision, and so there were multiple paths. She chose Soushi; and the other two paths vanished. The third path branched with what they were going to eat, and each path along that branched further and further with new decisions.

The further you looked, the more possibilities there were, the more you had to look through, and the less you were able to determine which one was more likely to come to be. It was lucky it didn't take into account minor variations- each timeline was a general thing. Minor, inconsequential differences such as differing spins on subatomic particles didn't spin off and create their own futures.

Though, that in itself raised questions. Why had Orihime only held three futures which differed on where she chose to eat? There were more places than just those three in particular; she could have picked any place on the island, and nobody would have stopped her. Did the timeline not diverge because she would not, under any circumstance, make the decision to eat anywhere else?

Testing the power proved interesting. When I was bored of standing around, I looked at my future, and checked to see where I would go. I had a multitude of paths, many locations-

And I chose none of them. A new path opened, one where I decided to stick around for a bit longer, and the others vanished like dust in the wind. That path diverged quickly, and more opened. I could make the decision to stand around to continue testing, head off to bother people, or just go on a walk around the island-

And, being contrary, I decided to check out my original base. Once again, a new path. The path opened because I gained new information, which changed the possible outcomes. If I had not looked into the future, I would not have decided to go check out my base, and would have instead chosen to do something on the island.

In that way, it was a... surprisingly unreliable ability. Seeing the future changed actions, which changed the future.

I think, in this case, that something similar happened when Orihime first awoke. She had been certain that Srinagar would be attacked- except in telling me that, the future changed because my actions changed. In the future she saw, I might have decided to just let the Neo UN try and attack Srinagar, perhaps because I could have completely ruined their capacity to wage war, and thus strongarmed them into doing what I needed them to do.

Perhaps. I still didn't know the exact details of whatever it was that had caused Orihime to say that.

Still, Despite being unreliable in determining which future would actually come to pass, it proved useful in two ways.

First; it was very much possible to recover information, data, from the future. I made the decision to assimilate a rock, and the future changed. I saw, and, again, experienced myself assimilate the rock- Received the information that came with it. I decided not to assimilate the rock, but still, the information remained.

The rock was not assimilated, but I still had the information that would have come if I had assimilated it; complete, perfect data on it, right down to the quantum level. I could reproduce exact replications of it, if I so wished.

For shits and giggles, I did exactly that, and then I spent the next five minutes skipping more copies of the rock along the ocean.

I'd gotten data on a rock, and had then been able to reproduce it in the present.

There was no reason I wouldn't be able to do the same with, say, technology. Lifeforms.

The potential of that... The word 'staggering' came to mind, but really didn't convey it. That was a potential that was nigh infinite.

And second; No matter what decisions were made by the people of this island, there was one event that happened in all timelines.

Walker would attack. The forces varied, but there were two constants; first: the smaller Festum that held off Mark Sein and Mark Nicht, and second: the larger, more powerful Festum that attacked Alvis.

I had a sneaking suspicion that the event took place simply because Walker had already made the decision, and was stubborn enough to stick to it in all timelines, no matter what happened. The attack could theoretically be averted if I destroyed him beforehand; but it was rather telling that, in absolutely no timeline, had I done that. Perhaps because it would break the agreement I had made with Orihime, or perhaps because this was a final battle, so to speak, and I would want it to be done with a bit of gravitas...

Probably the latter, honestly. A suitably dramatic final showdown like that would be, obviously, fucking awesome.

And I kind of didn't want to spoil the surprise, which the precognition would almost definitely do.

Coupled with how unreliable it could be, I simply stopped looking. The future would change because of that, but I wouldn't be privy to it simply because I didn't want to be privy to it. Knowing everything that could possibly happen was, after the initial spree of fun, boring.

I hummed to myself as I began walking down the steps of the lighthouse.

If this really was going to be the final battle with Walker, then I had so many things to arrange.

I began chuckling.

This would be fun.

"What are you planning?" A voice came from behind me.

Orihime stood there, slight bags under her eyes. She looked at me suspiciously, her eyes narrowed, and her lips pursed.

"What makes you think I'm planning anything?" I asked, idly curious.

She stepped closer, rubbing at her eyes. "The Mir told me you've been laughing to yourself for the last few hours."

"And what makes you think that's because of a plan, and not because of a really funny joke I thought up?"

"You're stalling."

"I might be."

"What. Are. You. Planning?"

I laughed. "Now now, Orihime, I can't tell you that. That would spoil the surprise, after all. And as everybody knows, spoilers are terrible."

She glared at me, trying to make me tell her through sheer force of will.

I merely smirked at her. Riling her up was a bit too fun. "Oh, don't worry. It's not bad." I paused. "Well, unless your name happens to be Walker."

188

I laughed, flinging my hand forwards. Blue-black lightning lanced out, crackling violently, directly towards my target.

In a blur of white and blue, Mark Sein stood in the path of the lightning. Its arm was raised, palm facing my lightning.

It was not my most powerful blast, and it was therefore not surprising when the lightning met Mark Sein's hand, and failed to get past it. From behind Mark Sein, Mark Nicht threw a Worm Sphere forwards, directly to me.

I cackled. There was a snap-hiss as I generated a Worm Blade from my wrist, rushing forwards. I cut the Worm Sphere in half as I went past, just because it looked cool.

Mark Sein and Mark Nicht immediately retreated, both of them heading backwards, and then to the left and right, respectively. By now, Soushi and Kazuki had learned not to try and engage me in melee combat.

The eight spikes of Mark Nicht's wings extended as it flew away, thin cables twisting and bending in ways that that they really shouldn't have been able to. The tips of all eight spikes faced me, and Worm Spheres formed, before purple beams lanced out towards me.

For a machine that was called 'uncontrollable', Soushi sure did seem to have an easy time piloting it. It was impressive, really.

Mark Sein also attacked, though in a far different way. A blinding, horizon-splitting blue beam swung towards me, emanating from the Luger Lance in Mark Sein's hand.

I smiled.

A Worm Sphere surrounded me, absorbing the beams sent from the two Fafners. It grew quickly, greedily sucking in the energies, before I teleported away, leaving the Worm Sphere behind.

Now over a kilometre wide, it fell to the water below.

It didn't quite reach the waves before it exploded, sending out a massive shockwave through the area, and also sending a plume of water into the air.

I would have loved to continue going. Pushing these two to their limit was fun, and every new trick they used in an attempt to defeat me was enjoyable, but...

I sighed.

"Alright, time's up."

We had approximately three weeks before Walker pulled out whatever he was planning. Subsequently, I spend those three weeks making sure all the pilots were in their best conditions.

I spent almost as much time training them as Walker did attacking them. I made absolutely certain that they would be prepared for Walker's attack. I threw scores of lesser Festum at the pilots, and tangled with Mark Sein and Mark Nicht myself. I pushed their cooperation and teamwork to the absolute limit, forced them to bring out every tactic, every cunning and underhanded plan, in order to win those bouts. I hit them alone, and together, using both singularly powerful Festum, and scores of lesser ones.

I did not play fair. Every victory was hard earned, every loss came about only when they simply couldn't keep up anymore.

I let up only when they had a mere few days left. I congratulated them on their accomplishments, all of them, and lectured them on their failures, so that they might learn from it.

Those three days were quiet. Canon alone had an inkling of what was to come, and only because she had foreseen parts of the event herself. Neither I nor Orihime expanded on it.

Finally, the day itself came.

It was an afternoon like any other. I stood at the lighthouse, leaning against the rails. Beside me was Orihime, who was looking over the ocean with a grimace on her face.

"It's here." She spoke.

I nodded.

The Fafners were already prepared. Mark Sein hovered alongside Mark Nicht, Amaterasu slightly behind and below them. Mark Fünf was with Tsukuyomi, both of them standing in front of Mark Zehn. Zwölf and Susanoo were on the ground, in front of Fünf and Tsukuyomi. Mark Sieben and Mark Neun were in the back, the former equipped with Maya's signature Dragon Tooth sniper rifle, and the latter equipped with two Medusa energy cannons. Two large cables were attached to them, and assimilation crystals covered the Medusa cannons themselves.

Mark Drei and Mark Dreizehn were in front of them, though both were behind Zehn, benefiting from Akira's Field. Drei was surrounded by a veritable horde of Trooper model Fafners, while Dreizehn was simply holding still.

No doubt supplying information to Hiroto, who would be coordinating them all. Boosted by Akira, Canon's precognition was an incredibly powerful tool.

But was it powerful enough to ensure their victory?

Guess I'd find out.

A shimmering Field spread across the water, far outside of the range of the outermost Welle Shield. Several Festum began to emerge from it, Scarabs, Ousias, Sphinx-Es, Sphinx-Ds, Sphinx-Bs, and a final, new Type that I didn't recognize.

I could sense the power they held- and it was nothing to scoff at. There were six in total, each one around the size of Mark Sein. Their arms were relatively thin, and their legs were digitigrade. A long tail extended from their lower backs, tapering off into a sharp, dangerous hook. The heads were fairly simple, long necks connecting a head shaped oddly like a helmet, pulsing languidly.

They were moving in groups of three, one on the left and one on the right.

The swarm didn't immediately move. Instead, they simply floated there.

I noted Dreizehn shaking, before Mark Sein and Mark Nicht rushed forwards, both moving together. The shockwave they produced from going so fast so quickly buffeted the water below them, sending sprays into the air.

The six new Festum moved to greet them, speeding over just as fast as Sein and Nicht themselves. I idly noted their arms changing, two shifting to blades, two shifting to what looked like a pair of rails wrapped in coils, and the final two shifting to thick, flat arms. They crashed into Sein and Nicht, the ones with flat arms generating a powerful shield that managed to stop Sein's Luger Lance, and Nicht's claws. The ones with swords darted out from behind the barrier, and engaged in melee, while the ones with coiling arms began firing Worm bullets at them.

Ah, ranged offence, melee offence, and defence. Powerful, too. Good combination for holding off Sein and Nicht.

Though, they're not powerful enough to hold them off forever.

If Walker was smart, he'd pull off whatever he was trying right now, while the most dangerous threats are occupied-

Which would line up with the vision from the Gordian Crystal.

Oh, yeah, there it is.

Orihime sucked in a breath, and I looked to the side, out across the ocean.

The water out in that direction bubbled- literally bubbled, pockets of air disturbing the surface.

Or, rather, there they are.

I looked to the other side of the island, where another patch of water was doing the same. Behind, I knew, there was a third one, all three points forming an equidistant triangle around Alvis.

Those are some very large Festum.

Massive pillars of golden flesh emerged from the water, each one easily twenty kilometres long. They belonged to Festum that were larger still, over sixty kilometres from front to back.

In shape, it was a Leviathan-Type. A big, whale looking thing- at least until it opened its mouth, at which point I could only call them lampreys with fins.

Each one of the three was large enough to rival Alvis. Each one could have crushed the submarine with its fangs, but that evidently wasn't Walker's intention.

The Leviathans surfaced, their massive golden bulk splitting the ocean. Purple light gathered in their mouths- and wasn't that familiar?

It was an attack, and a powerful one at that. The Leviathans charged energy, and would release it as incredibly destructive blasts. Even a single one would overwhelm the shields of Tatsumiya, and then obliterate the island itself.

If they were not destroyed, then Tatsumiya and everything on it would die.

I smirked as I remembered the Gordian Crystal's vision. Not entirely accurate, as the future had changed at some point, but hey. "Your island won't survive that."

She turned, glaring at me. "Really."

"Walker didn't hold back this time." I continued, heedless.

"You are insufferable." She turned away.

I grinned at her. "Oh, relax would you? Your pilots are fairly on top of things." I pointed at Susanoo, who at that very moment teleported away, taking Zwölf with it. I sensed them reappear inside of one of the Leviathans, at which point, Seri and Zwölf got to work, beginning to assimilate it from the inside out.

Amaterasu had moved next to Zehn shortly before the arrival of the Leviathans, probably thanks to Canon's precognition supplying a warning. Evidently deciding that going to the Leviathan was too pedestrian, Sui used his power, amplified by Akira's Field, to rip the Leviathan's core straight out of its body; subsequently opening it up to a blast from Neun, who took the opportunity to blow it to smithereens.

The third, however, was left unanswered. No Fafner went after it, and it was left alone to charge its blast. I idly made certain that I could keep the island safe, but it proved unnecessary.

When the oversized Leviathan fired, the blast did not meet the island. Instead, it stopped far short, as the massive beam was instead intercepted by an equally massive Worm Sphere. The light from the attack was intense enough that it coloured the entire battlefield purple, while also creating shockwaves so powerful that massive waves of water battered the Welle Shield.

The beam tapered off shortly, but the Worm Sphere didn't diminish. In fact, it expanded again, before shooting forwards at the Leviathan. It came close, before promptly, violently exploding. I felt, more than saw, the Leviathan dying; so bright was the light generated by the explosion.

But something remained.

Where the Worm Sphere once was, a Fafner now floated. I recognized the dusty brown colour of it immediately:

Mark Vier.

Kouyou Kasugai.

189

It was a bad day to be a Festum when Kouyou decided that it was time to be a badass.

I chuckled. He wasn't going to sit this one out, was he?

Honestly, what did I expect? That he'd just sit there and let everybody else handle it? Of course not.

A long purple blade snapped into existence, extending from Mark Vier's wrist. A Worm Blade, but I could sense that it was more than that; another power born of the Mir.

Mark Vier's arm rose, and then swept from right to left. The Worm Blade elongated, extending all the way to the other side of Alvis, and it passed through the swarm of Festum. The lucky ones were cut apart and killed on the spot.

The rest had to deal with the poison.

And what a dangerous poison it was~ Merely being nearby caused them to degrade, their bodies turning purple as they fell from the sky, disintegrating. Half the swarm vanished in ten seconds, turning a battle that was already in the pilot's favour into an assured victory.

The first Leviathan was slowly turning green as assimilation crystals covered it. The act itself was preventing it from attacking, and the only reason Seri hadn't already consumed it completely was because of the sheer size of it.

Mark Vier prepared another attack, this time from top to bottom. Once again, the blade lengthened as it did. I watched it go, splitting the swarm vertically, the other Fafners avoiding it with ease. Interesting that they weren't affected; mere proximity had been all that was required to poison the Festum, but it didn't affect the Fafners at all.

The blade kept going, and eventually dug into the water below before it began retracting.

I froze as the blade ran through the ocean. Why?

Simple.

I sensed pain.

Walker's pain. Walker had been hurt, and, for just that moment, hadn't been able to hide itself. Oh, it vanished immediately afterwards, but it was too late.

Why would Kouyou's blade going through the ocean hurt Walker?

Also simple.

It made so much sense- how I hadn't been able to find him, how he had been moving so much mass, how he had been creating Fields on the water without ever revealing himself.

I was almost ashamed it took me this long to figure it out.

"You're the ocean!" I burst out laughing. "You transformed your core in water!" I brought my hands up, and started clapping. "Bravo, Walker, bravo!"

My current companion was looking at me strangely. I didn't give a damn.

"All this time! You've been watching the island, hiding in the water, where you could pass unnoticed. That's how you could create those Fields without showing up- you were always there, just hidden!"

And, now Orihime was looking out at the water, considering it. She too was catching on.

My laughter trailed off into chuckles, which soon faded entirely.

"Sorry, Walker." I looked up at the sky, smiling. "It was fun while it lasted, but now that I've figured out your secret, the game has to end. Sorry, Orihime, but Walker showed up, and I'm going to capitalize on it."

She looked at me, before nodding. "Very well."

I vanished, teleporting away. I appeared above the ocean, my full form once again assumed. The Fafners barely reacted, but they were still dealing with the rest of the swarm.

I held my arms out to my side. "Come out, Walker. This ends now."

The water below did nothing. It continued roiling to and fro, as if it was normal water.

"Hiding won't help you anymore, you know?" I looked down at the waves. "I have scoured the width and breadth of countless galaxies to find my enemies. Do you really think you can hide inside one, insignificant little ocean? Spoiler alert: you can't. If I have to assimilate the entire ocean to get at you, I will."

He didn't come.

Fully intending to back up my claim, I floated downwards. My foot touched the water, and ice began to rapidly spread over it as I put Crawler's ability to use.

It spread ten kilometres in half as many seconds, and soon reached Alvis. I did not attempt to freeze the water around Alvis, because that would have damaged the submarine, though I did drastically lower the temperature of the water, getting it down to about four degrees Celsius.

I ignored the battle happening behind me as I continued freezing the water. It wouldn't last much longer, depleted as the swarm was. Mark Nicht had just killed one of the three Festum attacking it, and the others were soon to follow. The moment Nicht was finished, Soushi would help Kazuki, and then the two Salvators would be free to wreak absolute havoc on whatever was left by the time Kouyou was done with them.

There was a pulse to my side, and I turned to look. The ice in the area shattered, and Walker's core shot into the air, no longer water, but green photon-crystal.

Golden flesh shimmered into being around it as the Azazel-Type materialized, hovering slightly above my ice.

It was angry, I could sense. Oh so very angry.

It threw its head back and roared, releasing an echoing, howling sound, loud enough to be heard even tens of kilometres away at Tatsumiya's main island.

I hadn't been aware that Walker was capable of vocalizing until that very moment. Fascinating. The last time he showed he'd actually had a mouth, he hadn't made a sound at all.

His mouth was open, strands of flesh connecting the top and bottom, making for a rather menacing sight. There was a black void inside, no light at all reflecting from the inside of his mouth.

"This ends now, Walker." I repeated. "But you've been more interesting than any other Azazel-Type so far, I'll admit, so I'll give you the chance to surrender."

He howled again. Two red assimilation crystals jutted out of his shoulders, and two Worm Spheres appeared in his hands.

I sighed. "Defiant, aren't you? Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You are driven by spite and hate, after all." I shook my head. "Very well, if that's how it's going to be. Know this:"

I straightened to my full height, holding perfectly upright. "I am Commander Drich. And you, Walker, are my enemy."

190

The battle was quick, but intense.

Walker rushed backwards, raising its arms and holding the Worm Spheres in its hands towards me.

Purple beams shot out, and washed around my shield. I moved forwards, teleporting to just in front of Walker. He reacted admirably quickly, and tried to hit me with the two Worm Spheres.

I caught his wrists, and clenched. Shifting Festum blood sprayed out as my grip proved enough to crush them, strong enough that, when Walker pulled back, his hands came off completely. He roared in pain again, but was already regenerating, assimilation crystals growing over the stumps.

It lashed out with a kick, which I sidestepped, before grabbing his ankle. I stepped backwards, dragging Walker towards me, before using my other hand to punch him in the face.

He flew back, and crashed on the ice. Snarling, he straightened up, two Worm Spheres appearing in his newly reformed hands.

They shot forwards, heading straight to me. I batted them aside, backhanding them in different directions, before teleporting to him.

Several tiny Worm Blades extended from his fingers, and he clawed at me, aiming for my chest. Again, I caught his wrists, except this time, I didn't try to sever them from his body.

Instead, my body tinged red as I began generating heat, the ice below us sublimating into steam.

Walker tried to get away, yanking backwards, attempting to pull himself out of my grasp. It didn't work- and I instead unleashed a multi megaton blast directly into his face.

His body simply disintegrated in the face of that kind of power. The thin arms more or less evaporated in my grasp, and the rest of Walker's body was thrown away by the force, vanishing into a cloud of superheated steam.

I followed, the shield surrounding my body keeping me safe from my own power. The pain he was feeling was like a beacon to me, leading me directly through the fireball to Walker himself-

Or, at least, what was left of him.

Which constituted little more than the chest, flesh a burned and angry red; but already regenerating.

Stubborn, isn't he?

I didn't let him.

Blue-white lightning lanced out, unerringly accurate. It ran through Walker, causing it to flash freeze; a new coating of ice appearing. The assimilation crystals that had been spreading suddenly weren't, also frozen thanks to Crawler's power. It fell, crashing into the water below, beginning to sink further in. Before that happened, I teleported, appearing above it. The water froze as I touched it, trapping Walker in yet more ice.

I kneeled next to him, and touched the frozen flesh. Assimilation crystals immediately began spreading over him as I invaded Walker's mind.

"You had a good run, Walker." I spoke aloud. "Better than Roadrunner, Vagrant, Crawler and Aviator before you. But, this is the end of the road."

The assimilation crystals continued spreading, Walker helpless to stop it. In his prison of ice, Walker could do nothing but rage and hate ineffectually.

Finally, they covered him completely, and with a final chime, shattered, leaving nothing but millions of tiny shards behind.

I stood up, breathing in. Walker...

Much like Roadrunner, Crawler and Aviator, Walker held approximately 300 million Human minds. It seemed that those consumed by the North Pole Mir had been evenly distributed throughout its fragments. That brought the total I held up to one point five billion, one point two from the four Azazel-Types, and a further three hundred million from the forest Mir.

At some point, I'd have to see about recovering the ones inside Ashoka. It too was a fragment of the North Pole Mir. Kurusu's Mir, and Floater, both fragments of the North Pole Mir, should hold the rest, and I'd have to locate them at one point or another. That marked two point four billion Humans to restore, assuming all of them held at least three hundred million each.

I breathed out. The ice around me began melting, moving back to a normal temperature. The steam above cooled down to something reasonable, soon to make a phase transition back to liquid.

I looked to the right, noting the Fafners returning to Tatsumiya Island.

Huh.

That was it then.

Aside from, maybe, Floater, there were no more hostile Festum on the planet. With the Neo United Nations currently assisting me, there was nothing around to interfere with Altair, nothing to try and make it hostile. So long as Miwa could convince it to be peaceful, then... everything would be smooth sailing from here.

I smiled.

"Drich?"

"My name." I turned around.

Orihime looked at me. Her expression was fairly light; considering. "Did you choose it, or was it given to you?"

I smiled. "I chose it, of course. The names given to me are too numerous to count."

"Then why go by Lazuli?" She asked, frowning.

"Why not?" I asked in turn. "Lazuli isn't a bad name, given the context of me glowing bright blue. You already had a name for me, so I just didn't bother telling you it."

She held silent for a few seconds, before her eyes narrowed. "Lazy." She accused.

"Might be." I grinned. "Either way, now you know. Does it change anything?"

Slowly, she shook her head. "I guess not. What will you do now?"

I looked up. The night sky stared back, countless blinking stars. "I'm thinking of staying here for a while, honestly. Altair's trajectory places his area of arrival at the pacific ocean. Unless he deviates, this island is likely going to be close by when he comes."

"And afterwards?"

I shrugged. "Stick around for a decade or so in order to restore all the Humans. And after that... Well, go back to indulging my wanderlust. Leave, and explore someplace else, with the knowledge that life here is flourishing and vibrant."

Her head tilted to the side. "I... have been meaning to ask. What is it that drove you to that- your... goal to preserve life?"

"It's a rather bitter tale." I smiled again. There was nothing remotely happy about it. "Are you sure you want to know?"

She nodded.

I tipped my head. "Very well."


	20. Chapter 20: Logs 191-200

191

"The origin of my desire to preserve life begins in a place far away from here." I started. "Further than you might imagine. In one tiny little corner of the universe, there was a cruel and callous group of species, which was known as the Hierarchy. An alien group, unknown to both the Festum and the Humans of this world."

It was technically true. The Hierarchy was not known to the Festum, nor to the Humans of this world.

"They were a group driven by their insatiable lust for resources. They would travel the stars, from system to system, draining them dry. Throughout their expansion, they encountered many other species, advanced and primitive, kind and cruel alike." I paused for a moment. "The presence of life was no barrier to the Hierarchy's lust. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Hierarchy searched for life throughout the stars." I sighed. "And destroyed it wherever they found it."

Orihime held still.

"They burned one thousand, six hundred and thirty two civilizations to the ground. Entire solar systems were drained of resources, planets left as barren, lifeless rocks when the Hierarchy passed by them. Thousands of vibrant ecosystems, thousands of planets where life had developed and grown- all gone. Nothing but ashes, now." Another pause. "I encountered them on my travels. At the time, they were attacking a planet much like this once. The inhabitants were too weak to fight back, and were killed by the billions. Seeing the destruction being wrought, I intervened, and fought against the Hierarchy in order to preserve that world."

I turned, facing away from Orihime. "It was a small war, really. Certainly, nothing compared to what came afterwards."

"You... said that you scoured entire galaxies to find your enemies?"

"It was plague, which we named the Beast." I stated. "It brought death and destruction on scales too large for the Human brain to process as anything other than abstract numbers. My desire to preserve life stems from my first encounters with the Hierarchy, but the Beast solidified it into something more. I have built tombs for civilizations that once spanned entire galaxies, walked in the ashes of more worlds than you can even begin to comprehend, and I will fight to the bitter end to stop yet another from going on that that morbid list."

I said nothing after that.

For a good long while, neither did Orihime. "I... understand."

"No." I denied, because she didn't. She didn't understand- to her, it was words and a story, not personal experience. "You don't. You can comprehend what I say, yes, but that's a very different thing from having experienced what it's like to wander from galaxy to galaxy, star to star, world to world, and find only the twisted carcass of life that was had the potential to become so much more, but was snuffed out in the cradle." And you certainly don't understand what it's like to have the memories of both the killed and killer. "You cannot possibly understand what that's like. And you should consider yourself lucky because of that. I certainly do."

The next few months passed peacefully. Altair inched ever closer, course unaltered.

Fumihiko had ordered Tatsumiya island to move near his projected arrival site. When they had done so, they found another surprise; the damaged Watatsumi Alvis.

It was dead, uninhabited, parts of the submarine wrecked, systems failed, the environment totally unregulated and now host only to bacteria.

I knew the place like the back of my hand. Fitting, considering that I had assimilated the Watatsumi Core.

With a perfectly good sixty kilometre submarine just floating there, I had shortly moved over, integrating with it and fixing everything up. When all the systems were back online and the Alvis itself had been repaired, I set up a self-sustaining ecosystem, which would be further supported by the Alvis' own environmental monitoring subsystems.

I had also altered the shape of the islands themselves, expanding the landmasses significantly, simply so I could fit a larger variety of life aboard.

I might not have done that, but...

Well, the original inhabitants of the island weren't coming back. Though the Watatsumi Mir had, partially, been able to preserve them, the key word was exactly that: partially.

All that was left of them was little more than imprints, general emotions.

Hatred.

They were dead, and they were not going to return. I put Watatsumi Island to better use than just letting it lay there, a morbid necropolis.

Now, it was a monument to life. The people who had once lived there would be remembered, but new life would grow where the old had died.

That some of that life was not entirely native to Earth was irrelevant.

Finally.

I looked up to the skies.

After months of waiting, Altair was finally here.

And what a sight it was~

The Mir had wrapped itself in a multicoloured cloud of gas, which was a rather pretty sight indeed. When it started passing through the atmosphere, the cloud vanished, showing the blue coloured pulsating construct beneath it.

That too began disintegrating, vanishing into nothing. A small green glint passed through the widening hole; Altair itself.

I felt it acknowledge me, but I wasn't the one that it wished to speak with. It passed through the air, serenely, heading straight towards Tatsumiya Island, where Miwa was standing, looking up at Altair with something resembling awe.

Behind her, ever concerned, was Yumiko, standing with Maya and Chizuru. To the side of them, Kazuki stood with Soushi and Kouyou, all three looking at the incoming Mir with smiles on their faces. Scattered around with were the other pilots. Canon stood close to Kazuki, though not as close as Soushi or Kouyou. Sui was with Rina, Reo with Mimika, Sakura with Kenji, and Hiroto with Seri. Akira stood fairly close to Maya, though, again, not as close as Chizuru or Mimika.

Orihime was with Miwa, her usual severe expression set in place.

The older members of Alvis were behind the younger, all of them watching the new Mir. Their expression varied, but I'd call most of them hopeful.

Halfway across the planet, I intercepted an electrical signal, preventing the Neo United Nations from launching nukes. Simultaneously, every single screen in those complexes changed, displaying the text 'nukes are bad, mmkay?', and an email arrived at Hester's computer, containing a virus that would shut her systems down and read out a very long and very boring reprimand from me.

I'd hoped that Hester wouldn't go through with it, but... oh well. That betrayal was all but inevitable.

Altair came closer, slowing as it did. Finally, it stopped in the air, just in front of Miwa and Orihime. The former stepped forward, and I could see Miwa smile. Young and innocent. "It's nice to meet you!"

Altair pulsed, speaking back. It didn't know Human language, but it could understand Miwa.

If I were to assign it Human emotions, then I might have said that it was happy to meet her, too.

I smiled at that.

This was it. This was the end. Everything that had been done so far had come to this.

Altair pulsed again, this time with a question. It was... curious would be the best word for it, though not the most accurate.

Miwa's face scrunched up in confusion. "Sorry. I don't know."

For a third time, Altair pulsed. Unlike the previous two times, however, it began glowing, bright green light emerging from it.

Orihime's eyes widened, and I felt a surge of panic. "No-"

It happened in slow motion, to me.

Literally.

Green assimilation crystals appeared, sprouting over the island. Not spreading from a single point, but rather sprouting all over the island equally.

Oh, fuck no.

I considered my options. I had precious little time, about... eight tenths of a second at the current rate Altair was assimilating the Island.

I needed forces in the area right now. The closest thing I had was the single Envoy that had fixed up Watatsumi Island. The distance between Watatsumi Island and Tatsumiya Island was four hundred and ninety two kilometers.

Teleportation brings it in front of Altair immediately.

One will not be enough, however. Altair is too powerful for me to comfortably stop with only a single Envoy. The other nine hundred and ninety nine, however, are four thousand kilometers away. Instead of teleporting, I have them transition into Phase Space.

Their velocity is 1,678 light years per day. It takes 0.00000002 seconds for them to cross the distance. They appear as floating Festum cores, as there has not been enough time for them to form flesh.

It doesn't matter; the flesh isn't what makes them dangerous.

I lash out immediately. A thousand Envoys pool their psychic power, and attack Altair. I attack its mind, reaching out in an attempt to force it to stop assimilating.

My assault runs right into a mental barrier. It's not that powerful, and in any other circumstance, it wouldn't mean anything, but in this case, it takes precious time for me to break through it.

Altair doesn't try to repel me. It doesn't stop trying to assimilate the island.

And, to my horror, it doesn't slow down.

Instead, it speeds up.

More assimilation crystals sprout between the gaps of the old. They don't grow much, just enough to coat what they were growing on, before yet more sprout on what isn't already covered.

Eight tenths of a second drops to one fourtieth.

Not good. Not good not good not good!

Too little time... Altair's mental barrier would hold long enough for it to assimilate Tatsumiya Island... Perhaps if I-

The Island shivered.

Mir? What are you-

The assimilation progresses instantaneously. Tatsumiya Island is, very suddenly, green.

Only a moment later, the crystals shatter, exploding into billions of little pieces. Nothing is left.

My mental assaults withers as I take in the sight.

"No." You didn't. "That's... that's not..."

It hadn't.

Ah, but it had. I had just seen it with my very own eyes, after all.

192

A̧B̛͟SO̡LUT͡EL̷Y͜ ̨͢UǸÀ̛C͢CE͞P̵̧͞TA̸B̷L̡E̢̡͡

There was a flash of light- a roar of thunder- a psychic scream-

I had. One. Single. Enemy.

I charged.

"YOU!"

Ah. This is... a hell of a lot of anger.

Actually, anger is... insufficient to describe this feeling. I'd gone right past the hot fury, past the cold, calculating anger, and then straight into the absolutely incandescent rage.

"YOU! EVERYTHING WAS GOING FINE, EVERYBODY WAS HAPPY! EVERY! SINGLE! PERSON! THEN- YOU!"

This? This was not acceptable. After everything I've done, accomplished here-

Altair had waltzed right in and erased all my work. Erased them. All the people on the island, Orihime, Miwa, the Mir...

"I WILL FUCKING MURDER YOU!"

My Envoys shot towards Altair, burning with white-hot flames so intense that the atmosphere around them immediately caught ablaze.

Golden flesh appeared around Altair's core, phasing into existence as Altair realized it was in direct danger.

It took the form of a central mass, in a shape similar to a spinning top, with five more shapes extending from equilateral points. Each shape bore a resemblance to a diamond, with three blade like protrusions extending from the side opposite of the center mass.

A number of my Envoys slammed into a purple shield surrounding it. Stronger than any shield I had encountered a Festum using, but not strong enough to prevent me from breaking through it.

I didn't immediately do so.

Instead, I pushed against it, and shoved Altair up. A portal appeared above us, large and wide, big enough for all of my Envoys to pass through.

I pushed Altair through, and followed with my own Envoys. The burning atmosphere gave way to the void of space, and just before all of my Envoys passed through, I snuffed the fire with a thought, absorbing the incredible heat.

That would have proved deleterious to the continued existence of life on Earth, after all.

The portal closed behind us. The Earth hung in the background, the sun on the other side of it. Instead, the moon was below us, caught in the shadow of the planet.

Altair generated a shockwave that flung the few Envoys I had nearby it away, buying itself a small reprieve.

Worm Spheres sprung into existence around it, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands. Each one was massive in size, just as large as my own Envoy-Types.

They bulged outwards, bursting from the inside. Each one deposited at least a dozen lesser Festum, of varying types. Most common was the Sphinx-E, though there were still many other kinds, such as Sphinx-Ds, Ousias, Scarabs...

I realized a moment later that it must have learned about such Festum from the Tatsumiya Mir. The Gordian Crystals contained the minds of dozens of every kind, after all.

At once, I was outnumbered. The difference in quality was a yawning abyss, but if Altair could spawn so many Festum so easily and quickly...

It was rather impressive, actually. Three hundred thousand Festum born in a single second...

Were I in a better mood, I might have even entertained the thought of fighting them.

I wasn't. Right now, I wanted Altair dead. Killing its posse would increase the amount of time that would take, if only by a few seconds.

This ends now.

There was no flash of light, nor roar of sound, to herald my Castle from appearing in realspace. One moment, it wasn't there, and the next, it was.

It had already expanded. Each part was separate, glowing intensely as they each channelled absolutely immense amounts of energy. The orb of light in the centre shined like a second sun, lighting up the moon below.

"End." I demanded.

And the Festum did.

There was no blast of energy. No beams of light to express the action. Everything in front of my Castle simply disappeared.

The lesser Festum were erased, vanishing like dust in the wind. They did not form Worm Spheres, because there was nothing left of them for the Worm Spheres to consume. Behind them, a cylindrical hole appeared in the moon, all matter within ceasing to exist, nothing left behind. Every Festum died-

Except for one.

Altair, and Altair alone remained. His flesh disintegrated, wiped away, no shield coming to protect him, but his core remained; as was my intention.

The next attack was not physical, but mental. Once again, there was no indication that it happened, save for the results.

I attacked Altair's mind with all the power I could bring to bear. With a Castle, that was an incredible amount indeed.

I drove into its mind, a lance of thought and utter loathing, pressing past its mediocre attempts to defend itself. My Envoys attacked again, but this time all at once instead of just a mere few- The first slammed into it and held Altair's core to its chest. The rest dogpiled it, trapping Altair in a ball.

Blue assimilation crystals began to spread. I disrupted Altair's mind, left it unable to defend itself.

It would have been easy to shatter it, obliterate its mind. I decided not to. Too much at stake for that.

The people of Tatsumiya Island were motivation enough to not fuck around.

"Give me your life, Altair."

There was nothing to propagate the sound, but I could still almost hear the chime of shattering assimilation crystals.

I looked over its mind, pulled those it had assimilated out of it. The people of Tatsumiya, the Mir... all were intact. They hadn't been exposed long enough to degrade- No, they hadn't been exposed at all...

Ah. That's why the Tatsumiya Mir had allowed itself to be assimilated, so it could protect them.

It wasn't necessary, it knew now, but it hadn't then...

I breathed a mental sigh of relief.

I could bring them all back.

My Envoys began floating backwards, untangling themselves from the ball they had formed to capture Altair.

Idly, I turned my attention to the moon.

It was collapsing inwards, owing to missing 80% of its mass. A cylindrical hole from one side of the moon to the other.

I'd have to fix that before the gravitational effects got too severe.

I suspended the matter, holding it where it was. Gravity amplified, making up for the slack; a temporary fix until I could replace its missing mass.

Altair...

What should I do about Altair?

It... had assimilated the island, and everybody on it, because Miwa couldn't answer its question.

That... Just that?!

Something so minor, and it assimilated the entire fucking island?!

I shouldn't be surprised about that, I suppose.

It was a Festum. A pure Mir, unchanged by contact with Humans. It didn't know anything about them, or about the Tatsumiya Mir, and so it did what a normal Festum would do; assimilate them in order to know about them.

The exact same thing that started all of this...

I guess it really was too much to hope I could go through all of Fafner without...

I... will think about that later.

For now, I had lives to restore.

193

They're back. Safe.

This...

This never should have happened. It never should have...

I fucked up. It stings, acknowledging it, but I'm not going to delude myself.

The only reason this happened was because I let it happen. There were so many ways I could have stopped it- I could have talked to Altair before all of this, I could have kept looking into the future to make sure it wasn't going to happen, I could have brought the Castle in immediately instead of waiting and waiting and waiting.

I-

Little1 and Anastasia hugged me, wordless.

Never again.

Make mistakes; learn from them.

I made my mistake. Now I was going to make sure the lesson stuck.

He blinked.

He blinked.

He breathed in, his hand coming to his chest.

That was...

"Weren't we... assimilated?" He asked aloud.

"I... think we were." Chizuru said. "What-"

"Too much." Orihime collapsed, falling to her knees. She was shaking, beads of sweat running down her body. "Make it stop."

A moment later, he gasped, as a weight he hadn't even realized was there was taken off his shoulders.

"Orihime!" Seri rushed forwards, moving to cradle the girl. She too was shaking, he noticed, though less so than Orihime was.

"Is this what you are?" Orihime whispered, still shaking. "How can something like you even exist?"

She looked up.

His gaze followed.

There was a reddish haze surrounding the island, the sign of an activated Welle Shield. He frowned at that, because the Welle Shield hadn't been active in several days. Beyond that, however-

Chizuru beside him sucked in a breath. "That's... that's impossible!"

He saw it too.

Far distant, a green and blue marble hung in the sky.

It took him a moment to identify it as Earth.

When he did, he froze, simply staring at it.

But, if that's Earth, then... where are we?

He looked further up.

What he saw shocked him to the core.

"Is that... the moon?" Chizuru asked.

It seemed so-

Except that, as far as he was aware, the moon did not have a giant hole through it.

White, marked with craters, though the inside of it was- he could see the inside.

Why? The angle of the sun shouldn't have allowed that.

For the third time, he looked further up.

Something hung in the sky above. Utterly massive, surrounded by tiny blue specks of light. There were multiple pieces of it, floating around in alignment with each other. Eight massive, dark grey pieces, and sixteen smaller, light grey pieces. In the center of it floated what looked like a miniature sun, which was what provided the light for the hollowed out moon.

His attention was drawn back to Orihime when the girl let out an almost manic giggle. "All this time, you were this thing? You could have done it all yourself couldn't you? Everything that happened... only happened because you let it. Walker couldn't hide from you, you let Walker hide from you."

"If I had wanted to find him, it would have been within my power."

All of a sudden, there was another among them. Glowing blue, he recognized it immediately.

Lazuli.

Hmm.

I hadn't expected this reaction from her.

Orihime looked at me, a seemingly manic glint in her eye. She was, I could feel, absolutely terrified.

"You seem a bit frightened." I began, tactfully.

"It's natural." She said. She was surprisingly well enunciated, considering her fear. "Because you're frightening. Has anybody ever told you that- because you are."

My head tilted to the side. "A lot of beings regard me as that way. I have been viewed with awe and terror alike. Often both at the same time."

"Orihime-chan?" Seri asked.

Orihime breathed in, then out, taking deep, calming breaths. "I'm scared, Seri."

I frowned. "Seri, take her, find some chocolate, then feed it to her until she's calmed down. Everybody else, grab onto something. We're going back to Earth."

I held my arms out to the side.

Let's see, generate Quantum Field, initiate transition...

For a brief moment, everything goes black.

Then, we're on Earth. There's a loud shuddering as the Alvis submarine displaces the water, but we're back.

I looked up.

Right, moon.

Got to fix that.

"So, do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

My sudden presence gets a burst of fear, but it's nothing compared to yesterday.

Orihime only flinches, instead of turning into a shaken wreck.

She turns around, not... quite looking at me.

"That's not a healthy fear to have, Orihime." I noted. A bar of chocolate appeared in my hands, and I offered it to her.

After a few moments, she took it, unwrapping the packaging before nibbling on it. "It's... a reasonable one, however."

"It might be. But it's not healthy." I repeated. "So, tell me, what's got you in a tizzy?"

She looks away for a moment. "You. Altair."

I patiently waited for her to continue.

She sighs when I don't speak. "It's... hard to say. Altair... assimilated us. Altair was so powerful that it could have destroyed us all with ease. But you..."

She frowns, looking me up and down. "You slapped it down like it was... some kind of misbehaving child."

Not... how I would describe the events, but not inaccurate, I suppose.

"You just showed up out of nowhere." She turns away again. "Wielding the power to wipe out a whole Mir with ease. Wielding the power to put a hole in the moon. And then fix that."

She shakes, slightly.

"Where did you even come from? What are you? How can something like you exist? Why do you help us when we're so utterly incapable of standing against you? Why do you care about us at all? With the power you wield, we must seem insignificant to you-"

I flicked her on the forehead.

She recoiled at the gesture, staring at me.

"See, that's where you're wrong." I noted. "You're not insignificant to me. If you were, I never would have bothered talking with you or acknowledging you, would I?"

She stared at me.

I stared back, settling my head on one hand.

"Why?" She asked.

"Why not?" I asked in turn.

"It... really is that simple for you, isn't it?" She huffed.

"Why shouldn't it be?" I shrugged. "You're there. You think. You act. You exist. Why, then, should I find you insignificant?"

Her mouth opened, then closed.

I looked at her. "Well?"

She turned around. "I... can't answer that."

I nodded. "Exactly. Now eat your chocolate and go have an existential crisis later." I stood up.

"Where are you going?" She asked, just before I left.

"I'm going to go have a chat with Ashoka, and then I'm going to track down the remaining fragments of the North Pole Mir." I looked back at her. "Now, to answer one of your questions; the reason I help you is simply because I can."

And with that, I vanished.

194

I reappeared in a flash of light. "Good evening, Ashoka."

I got a pulsating hum in return.

"Yes, actually. I'm here for the Humans minds you hold within yourself."

A near rumble.

I reached out, and touched the crystalline tree that made up Ashoka's physical form.

Ashoka passed the minds to me, and I, in turn, passed Human languages back.

"Thank you."

Well, that was easy.

Let's see, now I just have to find either Floater or Kurusu's Mir.

Castle, cloak, scan... one reading over there, teleport.

I appeared above the Atlantic Ocean, seemingly nothing around.

I held my hand up, a Worm Sphere appearing.

Before I could do anything, there was a distortion in the air in front of me. The... effect was not all that dissimilar from Tatsumiya's cloaking shield disengaging.

Actually, it was nearly identical. The only difference was in scale, and what was revealed.

Floater.

An odd looking Festum, to be sure. Hard to describe, as it had a lot of bits and pieces about it.

Yet... I didn't sense any hostility from it.

Which was a pleasant surprise.

Maybe... I wouldn't have to fight it?

"Greetings."

"Hello!"

For a moment, I simply hovered there.

Did it just...

Floater's skin glowed, before disintegrating, fading away.

Underneath, Floater's true form was revealed;

That of a very familiar Neo United Nations carrier.

A normal carrier, excepting the large, almost fungal growth on top of it.

"Hey, have you ever thought that the sky looked beautiful?"

Floater was Kurusu's Mir.

I...

Actually, that explains a lot.

Floater's near avoidance of Humans, the fact that I didn't sense any hostility from it...

"I have. I prefer the stars to the sky, however."

"Both are great!" Came the enthusiastic response.

The carrier, still just floating in the air, slowly began drifting downwards, before settling on top of the water.

On the center part of the carrier, Misao Kurusu himself flashed into existence. He was naked, but didn't really seem inconvenienced by that.

I followed suit, teleporting, and assuming a smaller form as I did, appearing in front of Kurusu. He wasn't all that different from how he'd been the movie, aside from, perhaps, being taller and older.

He smiled at me. "It's nice to meet you."

I nodded. "Likewise."

I examined him for a moment. "Alright, I'll cut to the chase, here. You and your Mir are a fragment of the North Pole Mir, yes?"

He nodded, still smiling. "You want the Human minds, don't you?"

I... wasn't going to ask how he knew.

"The forest Mir told me about it." Apparently I didn't need to.

How about that?

"Will you give them to me?"

"Sure!" He rapidly nodded. "Can I ask a favour, though?"

Oh? "Yes?"

He leaned forward, all but bouncing on his feet. "Can you take us to Tatsumiya Island?"

I blinked. "Sure, though I have to ask why you can't go yourself?"

He leaned back, frowning all of a sudden. "We could, but we caused a lot of pain to the island."

I... "Fair enough." I shrugged. "I'll just go tell them to expect you."

"Thanks!" He grinned.

"But first, you need some clothes."

He blinked.

I watched Kurusu examine himself, twisting this way and that. I'd given him a fairly normal attire; a red shirt, grey jacket, and grey pants.

It didn't look half bad on him, honestly.

"Thanks!" He turned, grinning.

I waved it off. "No problem for me."

The carrier tipped slightly as we hit a large wave, though not nearly as much as it probably should have.

For something so utterly un-aerodynamic, it was making fairly good speed, moving at just over three tenths of the speed of sound. It could have gone faster still, especially if it had actually taken off and floated the rest of way there, or even just used a Worm Sphere to skip the intervening distance, but Kurusu wanted to take the long way around.

I'd admit, he was a fairly strange being. Far too cheerful, and with very little understanding in the way of Human culture. Another thing that made him very different was his staunch refusal to read minds when it wasn't necessary, which was about the exact opposite of typical Festum behaviour.

"Talking is more fun!", he had said.

I wouldn't disagree.

Kurusu was, I'd admit, rather fun to be around.

Warned ahead by me, Tatsumiya's harbour was open when the time for Kurusu's arrival came.

Not that it was actually used. Kurusu's carrier was a little too big, and too oddly shaped for it to fit. Instead, Kurusu had just teleported over, to be greeted by Orihime.

Upon realizing that Kurusu was incredibly strange even by Festum standards, she quickly dumped him on Soushi and Kazuki, who could deal with him much better than she herself.

As Kouyou was often with them, I quickly learnt a very amusing fact:

Kurusu is afraid of animals, and Chocolat doesn't like him.

Watching the humanoid Festum use Kazuki or Soushi as a shield against the little dog was, I'd admit, absolutely hilarious.

Weeks passed. Then months. Then years.

Stuff happened. Both on the island, and in the world at large.

The air swirled around me, lilting with curiosity.

"Seems good to me." I nodded. "You did well- and so quickly, too. Two years is fairly fast, you know."

A swoosh, this time, carrying an explanation.

It was pretty intelligent, actually. The Mir had looked into the future to see how the Humans would all be restored, and in doing so effectively skipped a lot of the of actually restoring them.

"Ah, that's what you did." I considered. "It shouldn't matter too much. And, perhaps, it is the correct route to proceed down. Some of these people have been dead for... quite some time, now. It could be considered a cruelty to lengthen that."

A swish.

"Yes, I think it's time." I agreed.

There was a pulse.

The water of the Well of Urd swirled.

"A whole lot of people are going to be very happy, and very confused, after this." I couldn't help but note.

Amusement.

I watched from the sidelines, leaning against the wall. My body was smooth white metal, and not the blue coloured Festum flesh of before. Beside me was Chizuru, clipboard in hand, both of us looking over the scene.

Sui was shaking, trembling with emotion. His eyes were wide, disbelieving.

In front of him was a girl- more of a young woman, really.

"San...ae?"

Sanae stared back. "Hey... little brother."

With a babbling cry, Sui leapt forwards, all but bowling her over.

Reunions are nice.

Especially when it's with your sister who's been dead for six-seven years.

"So, how long until the rest wake up?" I spoke, my voice low.

"Most should awaken over the course of the next few hours." Chizuru responded.

I nodded.

Sounded about right.

I can't wait until Shouko wakes up. Kazuki's and Kouyou's reaction will be amazing.

With Altair dealt with, Hester forced into cooperating with me, and the Neo United Nations focused towards helping the people I recovered, things were pretty quiet for a while. After the third year, somebody in the Neo United Nations spilt the beans on the Triple Plan, and how it would kill all but a chosen few.

The resulting coup of the Neo United Nations had been both expected, and amusing to watch; doubly so because I hadn't had anything to do with it.

One thing led to another, and the fact that people on Earth coexisted with the Festum also shortly got out, which, in turn, had led to what had happened at Watatsumi Island becoming known to the general public.

The words 'political shitstorm' couldn't quite cover the results of that. There was an entire revolution.

The upper echelons of the Neo United Nations disintegrated more or less overnight.

Of course, the Neo United Nations' self-destruction did result in some problems, mostly because I no longer had places to send restored people. I sorted that out fairly quickly by enlisting Narain in helping me deal with it, but that did mean I had to do a lot of the legwork for it, as the Srinagar group did not have anything even approaching the industrial capacity of the NUN.

That legwork mostly took the form of expanding farmland and other agricultural pursuits, which would be needed to supply food to the civilians I'd be sending them, and the housing to host them. I'd done my best to ensure that they'd be as low maintenance as possible, just so I didn't put undue stress on the Srinagar group.

Truthfully, I needed the governmental structure that was already in place more than the industry and housing. The latter two were easy to provide, but the former...

Not so. If I left them around under my care I wouldn't be doing much more than providing for their basic needs. An actual civilization, like the Srinagar group, would be a much better choice for them.

And once everybody was back and settled...

Well, I was done here. Leave something behind to monitor things -Probably Watatsumi Island, since I'd converted it to my use-, and then...

Go back to indulging my wanderlust again. Move on, and see what awaits me wherever I end up next.

Ah... Hopefully, it won't be something dark and depressing again.

But until then...

Miwa, currently eight, was focused on a piece of paper.

She breathed in, staring at it intently, before her hand rose and she snapped her fingers.

Instantly, the old, yellowed paper burst into flames, getting a large grin and a cheer from Miwa.

"Attagirl." I congratulated her.

She'd taken to pyrokinesis like a fish to water. I idly reached out, catching her as she stumbled, suddenly out of breath. "Try not to overdo it, Miwa. Setting things on fire with your mind is fun, but tiring for most beings."

She murmured a thanks.

"Are you sure about this, Mir?"

The air swirled around me. The Mir was determined.

"Very well. If you think so... Then I give you Altair."

Thanks to the Tatsumiya Mir's trick, it took me only six years to restore everyone.

It was, I'd admit, an entertaining six years.

I was almost sad to go, but then, I wasn't really leaving, was I?

195

"I'm home." I said.

"Welcome back." Twin voices greeted me.

I was never going to get tired of hearing those words.

My Commander walked forwards, heading to a bay. Behind it, the thousand Envoy-Types dispersed, heading in different directions. I had brought them back with me due to the time it had taken to produce them.

I stretched, an ever-satisfying crack sounding out soon afterwards.

And then I just slumped, letting out a groan as I collapsed into a chair.

A moment later, Little1's and Anastasia's avatars were next to me, both of them smiling.

I drew them both into a hug. "So, what have you two been up to?"

I already knew, but... well, I'd let them explain it.

"We've been building." Little1 grinned.

"A lot." Anastasia continued.

"So I saw." I nodded.

Really, it was kind of hard to miss.

"Let's go on a walk, shall we?"

They nodded.

I looked downwards, staring at the planet below.

An artificial world, one that had been built by Little1 and Anastasia for experimentation purposes. It was not host to the careful architecture that marked almost every single other planet in this system, but more wild, varied.

Some parts of the planet were freezing cold, as little as a few degrees above absolute zero. Others were burning hot, places where the air was more plasma than it was gas. In a few cases, those two environments were right next to each other, with clean lines dividing the two. Other zones were more temperate, ranging from anywhere between the burning heat and freezing cold.

Those zones still varied massively, however. Some were deserts, not a drop of moisture inside. Some were oceans, not a bit of land in sight. Some were plagued with near constant hurricanes and tornadoes, while others lacked any form of wind whatsoever. Some were bright, others dark. Some supported life, others were dead and barren.

A mix of completely different zones.

What every zone shared in common, however, was the presence of Festum cores. Mir cores, to be exact. Lots and lots and lots of Mir cores.

Creating them had been... time consuming, to say the least. The first had taken a good year- though the ones after that were created through different, less time consuming methods.

Whole bunch of ways to do it, actually.

But before I ramble on too much, the reason so many Mirs had been created; Experiments.

A Mir's ability to adapt was something that hadn't escaped our attention. The new powers that had sprung up among the Azazel-Types, and the Tatsumiya Mir, were very interesting. The variation was, itself, interesting.

Roadrunner could generate and manipulate heat. Crawler did the opposite; capable of sapping heat and producing ice, which doubled as its Field. Aviator could produce lightning, and clouds, which were its Field. Vagrant, of course, had the ability to assimilate via light, and was also capable of generating long-ranged portals. Walker could transform its core into water, and then use that water as its Field.

The Tatsumiya Mir just did whatever the fuck it wanted. Calling things to it, seeing the future, redirecting bullets, making clones of Fafners, generating Fields, shields, teleporting, assimilation... Admittedly, the last four were all abilities displayed by many other Festum, but still. The first four were new, even if the third and fourth were variations on other abilities.

The last ability, however...

The ability to give its powers to other beings. Humans, even. Transforming them into Festum not required; just here, have the ability, more or less.

Something that also made me realize I had been wrong.

Why?

Seri.

Seri, who had the ability to assimilate.

Seri, who wasn't Festum.

I had, previously, and evidently erroneously, assumed that assimilation could only come about because of the nature of the Festum. In assimilating Altair, and subsequently gaining access to all the information it had assimilated, I had learned that it wasn't the product of the Festum's nature, but simply an ability so intricately entwined with them that I hadn't recognized they were actually separate.

Something that had changed, now.

In seeing how the Tatsumiya Mir had given the ability to an otherwise normal Human, I had promptly replicated it for myself. And then every other ability, making them a part of my power, rather than the powers of my Festum.

Everything that could run me would now hold those powers. No Festum required.

Or, at least, no Festum psychic structure required. The cores, on the other hand, those were useful. They were easily the most efficient channel for my psychic energies I had, after all.

Castles? If I had a core that large, guess which one would be able to channel more energy.

Actually.

That was an idea-

Bleh, sidetracked.

Anyway, Mir, adaptable, lots of powers.

Little1 and Anastasia had constructed this planet in order to throw them at the widest variety of environments possible. They wanted to see how the Mirs would adapt to their environment, see if they would create new powers, see if they could survive in the most extreme locations. The abilities each Mir possessed was random. Some had nothing more than the most basic of abilities, other had advanced powers.

They were not very intelligent. Actually, it'd be hard to label them as sapient. Even sentient was pushing it.

Either way, watching them adapt had been... interesting.

Some hadn't made it, having been destroyed by the extreme conditions, and had subsequently been preserved by the Gordian Crystals. Others, however, had adapted nicely. No truly new abilities yet, but I wasn't all that surprised about it.

It was not a coincidence that the pilots had received the powers they did. Those powers had emerged as a result of contact between them and the Mir. New information had changed the Mir, and the way it did things.

The environmental conditions were... not all that likely to produce completely new powers. Variations on old ones, sure, but completely new ones?

Well, I had already spoken about that, hadn't I?

Frankly, it didn't bother me too much. I already had a fairly large arsenal of skills here. I wasn't exactly pressed for new ones.

Hmm...

"Looks like everything is proceeding well down there."

Little1 and Anastasia both nodded, smiling.

"So, what other experiments have you two been up to?"

196

After a short walk, we were standing above another planet. This one was more temperate, nice and calm, and not the utter raging chaos of the previous one.

Alternating forest and grasslands covered the supercontinent of the planet. Ocean covered the rest of the world, aside from the occasional island here and there for aesthetic purposes.

Floating platforms hovered above, the underside appearing to be advanced machinery, but the other was simply normal land. Some of them had buildings, ranging from seemingly ancient stone ruins, to extremely advanced and aesthetically high-tech facilities.

It was in one of the latter that we had moved to. It had, at first, been nothing more than another decoration on the planet, but it had since been converted into an actual research/experimentation facility because Little1 had wanted it to be.

Inside, Little1 and Anastasia had been messing around with Masari technology. More specifically, they'd been attempting to use it in order to replicate the psychic abilities of the Festum, in much the same way that it replicated the Masari's own abilities.

They had been met with success.

And now, I was looking at the fruits of their labour. A number of structures stretched out of the plains in front of me, each possessing the same general aesthetic of typical Masari architecture; seemingly made out of dark coloured stone, emitting gold and purple light, looking old, despite the fact that they were oh-so new.

A stabilized Worm Sphere hung above one. There was a floating chunk of assimilation crystals above another. Electricity crackled around a third, while, to either side, fire and ice surrounded the fourth and fifth. Shimmering portals opened near randomly around a sixth, while blue barriers wrapped around a seventh.

There were more buildings, each one expressing an ability that had been replicated.

I nodded in approval.

"You two did very well."

My children smiled at me.

I hummed to myself, going over a few designs.

Specifically, the Asura Commander.

New powers, new abilities- which, of course, meant upgrades.

I was currently fiddling with the internals, overhauling it. Mostly, I'd replaced the NEXT-derived designs with Fafner-derived ones, affording even greater ranges of movement and maneuverability.

I had also taken out one Resource Core, and replaced it with a Festum core. It was not a bipyramid like the other Festum cores, but rather a sphere, replacing the Resource Core exactly.

Small as it was, it would still serve as a very efficient channel for my psychic energies, though obviously not quite as good as a full-sized Core Amplifier. Fair, considering that the difference in scale between the two was massive; this core was a meter wide ball, but a full-sized Core Amplifier was a structure several hundred meters wide.

Honestly, I wasn't giving up too much. Actually, I wasn't giving anything up, as the energy it could channel would more than make up for the loss of a single Resource Core. It would, in all areas, improve the performance of my Asura Commanders. It was, given the size of the core, even easier to produce than a Resource Core.

Well- it had been.

But then I attained the ability to use assimilation crystals, which, as far as construction methods went, stood around about the 'hell yes' end of the scale. Their ability to arrange matter was very precise, easily just as much as the Protocrafters were, if not more so.

I finished the modifications, and saved them under 'Asura-26RC-1FC', a temporary working name.

I held my arms up, testing each bit of machinery. Everything was functional, as I had expected.

I turned my hand palm up. Assimilation crystals jutted upwards, spreading from the metal, before shattering, revealing a Resource Core. It connected to my network, and promptly began dumping matter and energy into it.

Hmm.

A moment later, more assimilation crystals covered it, before vanishing, and taking the Resource Core with it.

I guess I was no longer limited by my ability to use resources anymore. That effectively removes the one barrier holding back my production capacity. With the capacity to construct Resource Cores en masse...

That's it then, isn't it? The only remaining limit now was time. The exponent curve is now even steeper than it had been before.

Hell, were Resource Cores even necessary anymore? I guess not. The ability to create mass and energy freely more or less invalidated them. But, prior to Fafner, I hadn't had anything that could achieve the sheer output they could...

Ah, I'll think about it later.

"You know, you two have been cooped up in this system for quite a long time, now." I leaned back.

The ever comfortable plush cushion met my avatar's back. I sank into the seat with a happy hum.

Little1 and Anastasia were beside me a moment later, both curious.

"How about you actually join me on the trip?" I asked, looking at the two of them.

Little1 gave a considering hmm, while Anastasia turned away. "Technically, we already do." Little1 pointed out.

"You're always with me." I agreed. "But you never go off to check things out on your own."

"I don't want to fight." Anastasia said.

"You won't have to if you don't want to." I said, turning to her.

She looked back, at me, her face set in a grimace of worry. "But... what if people try to fight me?"

I smiled. "Then I will fight them for you." I drew her into a hug, wrapping my arms around her. Little1 shortly did the same. "Make no mistake; I will do everything in my power to make sure you don't have to fight if you don't want to."

She smiled. "I... would like to go with you."

Little1 nodded. "I would also like to go."

I grinned. "Excellent~"

I stood up, pulling them with me. "Then, let's have a bit of fun, shall we?"

Oh, there were so many things to do. So many things I could do.

I really did have to wonder what the next universe would be. Something light-hearted and fun, some dark and grim... Well, only one way to find out, wasn't there?

Oh, I couldn't wait.

197

Had anybody been around to see it, and if they had been looking at the sky at that moment, they would have seen three simultaneous flashes of blue light that briefly lit the night.

As our stealth systems were active, they wouldn't have seen anything else.

It was irrelevant either way. There was nobody around.

I looked down, at the barren land before me. If there had been any water, ice would have stretched out in every direction, this planet permeated with a freezing chill.

Above, and far distant, was a small, insignificant star. Dull red, it cast out only a tiny amount of light and heat. This planet could have been half again closer to its parent star, and it still would have been a dark and frozen wasteland.

There didn't appear to be anything interesting, but I could find out for certain in only a moment.

Time split, and I looked forwards into the future. Checking...

My sensors pinged, showing me the other objects orbiting this star, all dead and barren just like this planet. Icy comets, asteroids, cratered and rocky moons... There was no life to be found here.

In all futures, Little1 and Anastasia burned with the fires of atmospheric re-entry. In all futures, I didn't; instead simply hanging serenely in orbit.

Little1 and Anastasia had taken different Commander Chassis for this. Their own, designed for their tastes. Where I had taken the option of sheer, absolute mobility, Little1 and Anastasia had gone down different paths.

Little1's Commander was larger than mine. It did not have the same range of movement, and could not ever hope to match the sheer speed I could move with. Instead, it was designed with a different purpose in mind; that of absolute, total, and overwhelming firepower.

Unlike Anastasia, Little1 did not mind combat. That was not to say, however, that he enjoyed it. He regarded battle as something that should be ended as soon as possible, and what better way to end it quickly than by destroying the enemy?

Little1's Commander was equipped with a dazzling array of weapons. Lasers, railguns, missiles, plasma- he had it all, and then some. The extra bulk afforded him a considerable degree of toughness, though, much like me, he relied mostly on shields for defence.

Anastasia's Commander was the opposite. It lacked any form of weaponry beyond the improvised, and was instead equipped with additional Resource Cores, Fabricators, and Protocrafters. It was also bulkier than Little1's Commander, the armour was twice as thick as both mine and Little1's, with the extra energy generation and storage affording it a more powerful shield. It was a tough thing.

Little1's Commander was the warrior to Anastasia's constructor.

They'd reach the surface shortly enough, and I continue looking forwards, starting in one future my own production, and in another, vanishing into Hyperspace in order to head to another planet.

In the first, There was a hum, inaudible in the void of space. Assimilation crystals spread over my Commander, and then further, reaching outwards. With an equally inaudible chime, they shattered, revealing ten Embers, which immediately vanished into Phase Space, heading for the other planets. In the second, it would be moments before my Commander arrived at the target world.

In both, Little1 and Anastasia hit the ground, both of them sending up plumes of dust and rock. Both of them got to work quickly, beginning their constructions. Assimilation crystals were spreading out over the ground underneath them, while Protocrafters and Fabricators were already shaping new buildings.

More assimilation crystals spread from me, quickly forming a new structure. It was a fairly simple thing, just a temporary space station that consisted of two pieces. Each piece would have an inner and outer ring, the outside of which would be curved. A plus shaped cross would connect them, holding them in place. In the very center, I had a pyramid shaped hole, which would be mirrored on the other piece. That hole was for photon-crystal Core, which floated languidly between the two pieces.

It wasn't all that large, really. The outer ring on each piece would be a paltry 160 meters in radius, and only 30 meters tall. The core I'd soon install would be fairly large, at twenty meters tall, but not the biggest. Large enough to channel a considerable amount of power, though less so than a full-sized Core Amplifier would.

Hmm.

Right. Have to figure out where we are. Let's see, start compiling data...

Okay. Semi-figured out our location, now. We are, as far as the phrase can be applied, about thirty thousand light years above the galactic plane. This galaxy is the Milky Way -has the same shape, though I've seen enough variations on the content by now to know that it probably won't be the same as the others.

Why we had appeared so far up, I didn't know. Normally I'd end up straight in the middle of the action- though, technically, my time in Fafner had started out with me fairly isolated... And the time in Armored Core had been more or less the same... and the time in Command and Conquer.

Huh. Now that I think about it, that really isn't- Whoops, sidetracked.

Little1 and Anastasia had been -will be- building up a lot. The planet below was more or less entirely metal by now -will be entirely metal very shortly-, and it gleamed in the dull light of the star above.

Appropriate, since this fucker was 90% chrome. The polish was shining.

... Might have to take a gander at getting that star to be a bit more... more. Currently, it was just pitiful. Dump heaps and heaps and heaps of Hydrogen into it, and it should eventually turn into something a bit more respectable.

Or we could just build a Dyson Shell, and rig up lots of spotlights. What, too metallic for a star? No sir, I assure, this is a genuine, totes not counterfeit star.

Okay, that's enough being silly. It's high time I actually started scouting around.

But where to first? Where Earth would be in this Milky Way, because that's where the interesting stuff is inevitably happening? The center of the galaxy, because black holes were pretty to look at? Some random star, just because?

So many options. And I can pick them all at once, simultaneously, if I so wished. I could do them sequentially, one by one, in only a moment.

Time splits yet again, and I construct a Pyre. The moment it's complete, I send it off on its way, on a course that will, eventually, take it through every single star in the galaxy.

198

Ah, would you look at that- another random, boring star, with nothing of interest in the system. Not like I haven't encountered any of those before, no!

Blegh. Into the archives with you...

Normally, something of interest would have happened by now. Next closest system, 3.3455 Light Years away, blue hypergiant. Dip into Phase Space, wait two minutes and twenty three seconds, leave Phase Space, here now. Will be there. Prescient pronoun problems.

Planetary bodies... lots and lots and lots of asteroids. Three Gas Giants, a number of planets. Six with masses larger than Earth, all others lower...

Hundreds of Worm Spheres appeared, dotting space around my Pyre. Each burst apart, scores of Seeker-Type Festum appearing. They vanished shortly afterwards, each taking a short jaunt through Phase Space, before reappearing at the planets around the system. They'd build up, analyze everything and then... Well, whatever.

"You two found anything, yet?" I asked. I already knew the answer, of course.

Twin denials answered me.

On to the next star, then. Closest one was a M-type main sequence star. I doubted I'd find too much of interest there, but hey, it wasn't like any of those was actually taking more than a moment.

Little1 was heading towards a neutron star, while Anastasia was currently at a red dwarf. The former would arrive in about twenty five seconds, while the latter would depart in eleven.

My Pyre vanished into Phase Space again.

I focused on the Festum it had left behind while I waited for it to reach its destination. All were in the process of rapid self-replication; using assimilation crystals to produce massive amounts of the photon-crystalline body that was a Festum's core, which, in turn, was producing assimilation crystals to make more of itself.

Without the need to create the psychic structure of the Festum, the photon-crystalline body could be produced basically as fast as the assimilation crystals could spread, something which was itself sped up as more and more photon-crystal was formed and more and more energy could therefore be channeled by it.

I loved exponential curves. I really did. They were just so fun.

And with photon-crystal, that much more dangerous. Altair, having a core that was a collection of irregular crystals around about two thirds the size of a Fafner, had been capable of assimilating a sixty kilometer long, forty kilometer wide ship within less than a second, without even physically touching it. It had not been particularly straining for Altair, either.

What, then, could one do with a core a hundred meters tall? A thousand? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand?

It was interesting to-

"Creator-Mother." Little1 interrupted my thoughts. "I have encountered an anomaly."

Oh?

I laughed.

And laughed and laughed and laughed.

Little1 had shown me the anomaly he'd found. A strange material that we had never, ever encountered before. It was blue in colour, and it had a number of very strange properties.

I had recognized it very shortly after Little1 had acquired a sample for study.

Element zero.

Which had, obviously, sparked a wave of laughter from me, much to Little1's and Anastasia's confusion.

Further experimentation by Little1 confirmed what I already knew.

Mass Effect.

Mass Effect! Of all things! I had had a sneaking thought that my decision to bring along Little1 and Anastasia would prompt some kind of supremely powerful setting where we would all have to struggle not to simply be erased-

And instead, what we got was Mass Effect.

Don't get me wrong, I like Mass Effect, but really? By this point it was just sort of unremarkable compared to what I had already been through.

Well, not quite. There was something of note, and that was the aforementioned element zero. That was new. That was a departure from the norm.

Probably even a departure from normal physics. Almost definitely, actually; like I said, the stuff hadn't existed in Homeworld, nor Universe at War, nor Supreme Commander. I'd have to scout Fafner and Armored Core before I could say that it definitely didn't exist there, but I wouldn't bet on it either way.

If I recall correctly, and I should for obvious reasons, element zero, eezo, was generated when solid matter was affected by the energy of a star going super-nova. It's therefore really common in systems where remnants of supernovas are present, such as neutron stars. Were this true in other realities aside from Mass Effect, I would have found it already, as I'd visited far more of such remnants than I cared to count.

But still, that was an opportunity.

How did it work? Could I replicate it? Preliminary scans suggested that we could, but... If I replicated it here, would it remain stable outside of this universe? Could I produce it in another universe? What technologies could I amplify with it? What could I create using it?

Questions, questions, questions.

Of course, there were also the other things in Mass Effect worth noting. The Reapers, mainly.

How fortunate that the Reapers had answers for some of those questions. Bonus points for the fact that the genocidal space cuttlefish were sufficiently assholish enough that I'd have no problem just assimilating them.

Need to find out when I am in the timeline. If I'm fairly early, then I might just be able to wipe them out before anybody in the galaxy discovers them.

Of course, I'd have to be fairly subtle about dealing with the starbrat. Shouldn't be too hard to infiltrate the Citadel to get at him, though. My stealth should be up to the task, at least.

I had... what, five, six, different methods of stealth and cloaking? Ah well. Didn't matter too much.

But anyway, Mass Effect. There was... approximately nothing that could actually pose an actual, legitimate threat to me here, short of some bullshit Diabolus ex Machina.

Well... maybe the Leviathans? Really, really, really small maybe, though. Between their nebulously defined psychic powers and...

Yeah that wasn't even a question. They're not a threat, and it's nothing more than paranoia to even consider them such.

I tilted my head to the side.

So many roles I could play here. Mysterious alien from the beyond, up and coming idealistic species... I'd need some information to play any of those roles, however.

Not too hard to get. Just look even further into the future than I already have.

So much fun to be had.

And I already had an idea.

199

So I might have gone overboard a little.

Castles? If I had a core that large, guess which one would be able to channel more energy.

Yeah...

I had been curious as to what a core of that size could actually do. Obviously, it would serve as a channel for truly massive amounts of energy, but what else?

So, I got to work in order to find out.

There were a few parts to the result, actually. First was the core itself, a bipyramid one hundred kilometres tall, and forty kilometres wide. Surrounding that was a combination of armour and machinery; a shell roughly ten kilometres thick that served both to protect the core, and to amplify its power.

In much the same way as the Castle, that armour could also break up into multiple parts, though that served no actual purpose beyond looking cool.

The third part of it was a trio of rings that floated around the entire thing. Two of them were dark grey, the same colour as the armour surrounding the core, while the third ring was a brilliant gold. Both of the dark grey rings could break up, again for no reason other than it looked cool. The gold ring could do the same, though I wouldn't be using it too much.

Besides looking cool, the rings did serve a purpose. Where the armour was mostly for defence and amplification of the core, the rings served instead as a backup array of powerful sensors. Sensors had been built into the armour, yes, but the rings contained just as many as the armour itself did. Blow them up, and a bit under half the conventional sensors of it would be removed.

Of course, it was very important to note the 'conventional' part, there. The core, bereft of armour and rings, was not exactly blind or helpless. Quite the opposite, actually.

A hundred kilometres of photon-crystal core was a hell of a thing when it came to energy channelling.

But what if it was bigger, some insidious part of me had whispered.

And so, two hundred hours of subjective time later, I had a design that was bigger.

Quite literally. It was more or less just a scaled up version of the previous design, with all the technological and mechanical bits altered to efficiently fit the new size. Same shape, same armour design, same ring design, just one hundred times bigger than the last.

Which, in turn, meant ten thousand kilometres of photon crystal, with the accompanying megascale armour and megascale rings.

The Castle was at the level of 'Planets? Quaint.' These things?

Well...

I called the smaller version 'Stronghold', and the bigger one 'Fortress'. Big dumb objects both, but still...

I couldn't wait to use them.

I waved my finger around, a ring of light-blue dust form element zero orbiting it.

I had some answers to some of the questions I had asked. Could I replicate it? Yes. Could I do it outside of this universe? Also yes. Did it remain stable outside of this universe? Once again, yes.

How did it work?

Still working on that one.

Running an electrical current through element zero caused it to generate fields in which mass was raised or lowered. Simple stuff, straight out of the Codex in the game. Use a positive electric current, mass increases. Negative current; mass decreases.

Easy, right?

That explanation falls apart if you have even a basic understanding of electrical currents. Namely; the words 'positive' and 'negative' are entirely arbitrary. Charge flows from the surplus to the deficit. The charge itself could be positive or negative, but the current was just a flow.

If, by 'positive current' and 'negative current', it had actually meant a current carrying positive/negative charge, that would be... somewhat more reasonable.

Some rather pointed questions about how Biotics functioned would still need to be asked, but it would at least be workable... Insofar as it would be possible to attribute more complex things to Biotic Implants, or, in the case of the Asari who didn't need them, genetic manipulation done via the Protheans.

Ugh.

The Codex wasn't written by scientists. It was written by a bunch of game developers who wanted a highly detailed sci-fi. That a considerable amount of what was stated in the Codex happened to conflict with physics in egregious ways was, I suppose, not surprising.

Though it created questions that needed answers. Would this universe accurately reflect what was written in the Codex, thus working on art major physics, or would the codex be wrong instead, thus having the universe maintain conventional physics (With the exception of Element Zero)?

Ugh... Didn't have this problem with any previous universe. With the sole exception of C&C, none of them went into supreme detail when it came to technology. 'It works because (quantum voodoo / psychic powers / minovsky physics kojima particles)' was a good enough explanation for them, but noooo, not Mass Effect.

Even in C&C's case, the physics behind tiberium was developed three games in, by actual scientists, not games designers. And it came from a white paper, no less. It made sense, damn it.

I sighed.

But enough about that. That was getting into the territory of pointless complaining.

Logically speaking... It was more likely that the Codex would prove wrong, rather than the universe would diverge from normal physics to prove it right. If physics had changed, then I should have noticed already.

The fact that Element Zero didn't collapse into radioactive particles when introduced to other universes was another point in favour of the theory. It functioned exactly the same way outside of this universe as it did inside of it, so...

That was something, I guess.

The ring of dust coalesced into a long, blue cylinder, the ends of which I held up between my two pointer fingers.

I didn't do anything with it just yet, merely staring and contemplating.

Of course, I had nothing but speculation at the moment. Will the universe make more sense than how it is presented in the Codex? Don't know. How do Biotics work? Don't know.

Electricity crackled over my fingertips, swirling teasingly around the element zero, though not quite touching it.

How long would it take me to find out the answers to my questions? Don't know.

But, got to start somewhere.

200

Hmm.

Right. Element Zero reacted to the polarity of the electric charge. Positive charge means a mass increasing field, negative charge means a mass decreasing field.

Both polarities in the same current means that element zero releases both mass increasing and mass decreasing fields.

In a mass decreasing field, the speed of light rises in proportion to the strength of the field. This seems to be a linear relationship, a field that halves the mass of all objects within will cause the speed of light to double. A field in which the speed of light is four times higher than normal means that local mass will be one fourth of what's natural.

Fifty thousand times the speed of light means mass is decreased to one fifty thousandth. Simple enough. Relativity applied based on the altered speed of light, rather than the actual one. If you're travelling ten thousand times the speed of light, but local C is instead a hundred thousand times the speed of light, then the relativistic effects upon you are the same as if you were moving at ten percent the speed of light in normal conditions.

Such a thing enabled FTL travel, but as an FTL system, it's remarkably crude. You run a negative charge through element zero, and then you accelerate to speeds that would normally be superluminal.

And that's it. No quantum fields to ensure continued existence, no ripping open holes in the fabric of space and time to warp across the galaxy, no creating quantum tunnels to slip through the stars, just... Push yourself around with rockets at FTL.

All thanks to a magical space rock.

It was so... bleh.

A mass increasing field does exactly as the name suggests, increasing mass in an area. Contrary to expectations, a mass increasing field did not decrease the speed of light within the field. Thus, it remained possible to maintain both artificial gravity and FTL at the same time.

Why mass increasing fields didn't negatively affect the speed of light, I didn't know. But it was awfully convenient, because it didn't even interfere with mass decreasing fields despite functioning in the exact opposite manner.

Too convenient, according to Anastasia.

"Why isn't it everywhere?" She asked. "If this material is generated in supernova events, then why hasn't it scattered everywhere along with other heavier than iron materials? One would expect that you'd be able to find at least trace samples of it in other stellar systems, but we went through hundreds of systems before we encountered it. Not even so much as a microgram to be found. Astronomically speaking, that's extremely unlikely."

"Harvested?" Little1 interjected.

"Even more unlikely. If a polity was so advanced as to completely remove any and all traces of it from entire solar systems, then they should also be advanced enough to synthesize it on their own."

"Denial of resources?"

"A possibility, but then I have to ask the purpose of such an act. In order to get rid of it all, they should be so advanced that they shouldn't need to."

"Inherently illogical?"

"I really don't want to resort to that, brother. But so far, it seems like I have to."

"Frustrating."

"Yeah."

A number of similar conversations took place as they discovered more and more about element zero.

Like the one about static charge.

"This material violates conservation of charge."

"Error in observation?"

"No. I had thirty different isolated systems, each of which was electrically neutral. All systems now show a surplus of negative charge. I was running a positive charge through the material in the first ten, a negative charge through the material in the second ten, and both through the material in the last ten. Regardless of what kind of charge I run through the material, a surplus negative charge is generated." Her avatar was pacing back and forth, expressing her annoyance. Little1's watched patiently, sitting on the couch.

"Drawing from an external source?"

"No. Or, at least, if it is, then I can't detect it."

"Unlikely."

Anastasia nodded. "Yep. Which is why I said it's breaking conservation of charge. We're getting a negative surplus from nowhere, regardless of what kind of charge that we run through it. Which is dumb, by the way. Run a positive charge, get a negative. Run a negative, get more negative. It's dumb for the same reason that mass decreasing fields increase the speed of light, but mass increasing fields don't have any effect whatsoever."

"You discovered the reason?" He asked.

"No. There is no reason. There's no logic behind it, it does it because it does it! It's not psychic powers, it's not super science, it's not strange particle interaction, it's not anything that's logical and reasonable; it works that way just because. And isn't that just convenient."

Or the one about how objects inside mass effect fields react to leaving it.

"Oh good, it breaks conservation of energy, too."

"Unexpected."

"Yes. That projectile just had its kinetic energy multiplied by a factor of four. I had been expecting that it would slow down upon leaving the mass decreasing field, but it didn't. Total energy expenditure, counting the energy required to power the mass decreasing field, and the accelerator array, is less than what was required to accelerate it. If we harvested the kinetic energy of that projectile, we would have more energy than we put into it."

"Function in reverse?"

"Testing that now... And yes. In a mass increasing field, the object does not speed up upon losing mass. The kinetic energy imparted on it is... just gone. Not converted to heat, not released as any other form of observable energy, nothing. This material allows the easy violation of conservation of energy. Also, raises tons of other questions about how materials react. If an object has its mass lowered, does it need less energy to raise it to a certain temperature? The ability to lower and raise mass also has implications on drive systems that need exploring."

"Intriguing."

"And infuriating! We require extremely advanced technology or powerful psychic abilities in order to violate conservation of energy! This material just... trivializes it! No need to study the intricacies of the universe, no need to develop arcane teachings, just here, have this magical space rock, and play with physics like a child would play with toys!"

"Fired up about this, aren't you Anastasia?" I laughed slightly.

"I... You can see my point of view, can't you mother? This material is just... It's stupid! It does so many things, and so few of them make sense!" She turned, her expression set in a frustrated frown.

"Don't worry dear, I do." I reached out, pulling her close and hugging her.

Little1 shortly did the same. "As do I."

She slumped, slightly. "Thank you."

We held each other for a few more seconds, before I let go of her and she turned around to glare at the cloud of element zero floating above the table.

There was a dangerous glint in her eyes as she stalked towards it. "And as for you... I am going to science you, and by the time I'm done, you will make sense."

I smiled.

It was nice to see her having fun.


	21. Chapter 21: Logs 201-209

201

+++

Hmm?

An anomaly?

Scan-

Ah, finally.

Found one.

My Stronghold transitioned, appearing in front of an ice moon. That moon very quickly vanished as I Unmade it, freeing the object that had been trapped within.

An inactive Mass Relay.

Time branched outwards. In one future, I assimilated the Mass Relay, all but instantly coating it with shimmering blue crystal. In another, I began a detailed scan, building a quantum level blueprint of the ancient machine.

With the information I wanted attained, I chose to do neither, leaving the Mass Relay alone.

I felt Little1's and Anastasia's curiosity as I passed the data on to them, letting them play with it as they wished. There was an immediate, stark sense of irritation from Anastasia when she saw the device's use of element zero, which drew an amused chuckle from me.

But aside from that...

The technology that it incorporated was fascinating. The material it was made of was extremely durable, and very dense. I had superior composites, both tougher and lighter, but still...

Impressive.

That was augmented even further by Quantum Locking, strengthening the tough, dense material even further. It was... pretty much exactly like Seraphim Quantum Locking, differing only in the design of the machinery that generated the effect.

Wouldn't be too hard to bypass if I wanted to.

The power source exploited element zero to break conservation of energy, then harvest the extra energy, rinse and repeat. I'd call it ingenious, but it's really a rather obvious use of element zero.

There were a few sets of communication systems in it. The first was a quantum communicator linked the Mass Relay to the Citadel, which allowed it to send and receive data, which was apparently used so that the Mass Relay could locate and link with other Mass Relays.

A laser and radio communication system were also present, allowing local connections. Those could be paired with the Mass Relay's ability to generate low-mass corridors, allowing direct FTL communications with other Relays should the quantum communicator fail.

Made sense. The Mass Relays would have had to have something like that in order to actually function.

What else...

Not much, actually.

Those systems were everything of note.

...

Mass Relays really aren't that complex, huh.

Oh well.

Half a dozen ships spun into existence, a simple design that I called Arrowheads. They floated forwards, approaching the Mass Relay, broadcasting signals.

Receiving them, the Mass Relay activated, running checks and scans. Finding that nothing was broken, other systems were brought online, starting first with communication systems, and ending with the mass manipulation systems.

The rings in the center of the Relay began rotating, and the orb of element zero began to glow. Shortly, both reached their peak, and the Mass Relay began to turn, moving to face another solar system.

Again, the future branched in front of me, one where I stayed here, and another where I sent off the Stronghold in that direction after it finished aligning. Sure enough, slightly over eight hundred light years away, another Mass Relay was active and pointed back.

In the present, my Arrowheads transmitted more signals, moving towards the Mass Relay. Blue-white lightning extended from the core of the Mass Relay, and a moment later, all of them vanished in streams of blue light.

+++

Fourteen Relays later, I finally found one that was already active.

And, with it, a small colony.

Time branched outwards, my ships approaching it under stealth.

Let's see... the colony was full of Turians, relatively small, but well-equipped. A number of communication buoys were streaming information to and fro, linking the colony with the wider galaxy.

Don't mind future-me, just going to help future-myself to that.

First thing to check, Humanity. If they have an entry on the Extranet, then I can tell that I'm at least at past First Contact.

If not, then I can see about making sure the First Contact War doesn't happen. Sure, it didn't really kill a lot of people, but it was still a rather significant event that soured relations quite a bit. If I could prevent it, then I could both stop all the deaths that occurred during it, as well as encourage friendly talks.

Let's see, how do we use this... Ah, that's how.

Alright, to space google. Search, Humans...

Did you mean: Humats. Evidently, not a part of the galaxy yet. Humats are... some bird species native to some colony world of the Salarians.

Well, there we go. Before the First Contact War.

Which... Huh. I could just go wipe out the Reapers right now, deal with the Catalyst, kill Nazara, and effectively avert that crap entirely without anybody in the galaxy being the wiser. After that... well, aside from Javik and the Collectors, I'd be more or less completely done here.

Yeah, that's a plan. But first, space Wikipedia, go. Time for a wiki-walk. Let's see, we'll start with... Oh fuck it, Asari.

Oh, lag times. Ugh. That's painful. Their systems are so slow. I don't want to deal with that.

Thankfully, I don't have to.

The future split again, and again and again and again. Quintillions of possible timelines played out before me, each one differing only in the information I requested from the Extranet. In each one, I requested only a small bit of data, at most a single webpage at a time, which I received shortly.

It added up quickly. A quintillion timelines very shortly made the totality of publicly available data on the Extranet available to me, which would have taken forever to download if I had done so conventionally.

There was a lot of information, though it was only what was available through the Extranet. Anything else, such as classified or non-public data, was out of my hands for the moment. It wouldn't have been too hard to get if I wanted, but the information I had would do fine for now.

Map data, check the galaxy... slightly different to the Milky Way, but that's not unusual. Based on stellar position, it should be around about... 2019, for Earth?

Well, whatever. The closest ship sets the course, and...

March 19, 2019. Nailed it.

Alright, next question. What do I actually want to do here?

It would be incredibly easy for me to just go ahead and wipe out the Reapers. The Catalyst, too, I could destroy without anybody knowing any better.

There was a certain appeal to just going right ahead and actually doing that. Nobody said I had to stick around, after all. Just wiping out the Reapers and leaving, in and out in a mere few hours...

Yes. There was an appeal in that.

But there was also an appeal in throwing a curveball and watching everybody deal with it.

What would happen if I arranged things such that Humanity would just so happen to stumble upon the math needed to develop Phase Drives? What would happen if, suddenly, a Salarian experiment on a uninhabited moon breached into an alternate dimension full of glowing things? What would happen if a chance accident revealed the Asari Athame Beacon to the galaxy at large.

What if, what if, what if. Fun things to think about.

And now that I think about it, it sounds fun.

...

Ah, fuck it. If I can't have fun, what's the point?

Let me see...

I have an idea. 

202

+++

You know, some might say that what I was doing was a bad thing. That I, by doing what I was planning on doing, would be forever altering the path of a species, all for my own amusement.

To which, I would say that the thing I cared about was the preservation of life, not the guidance of it. I had already thrown literally millions of species off track, and I wasn't going to stop now.

Step one of my plan began with borrowing Sovereign.

I needed an apparent villain, and who better to be an apparent villain than one of the genocidal fuckwits known as the Reapers?

No one, clearly.

Finding Sovereign did not take very long. Borrowing him took about fourteen seconds. Taking him to Arcturus took a little over three minutes, not because his size altered the speed at which my things travelled, though it did do that, but instead because it a little under three minutes to deal with the black rage that filled me after I checked through his memories on habit.

What I saw made me very, very angry.

"Oh." Anastasia grimaced. "That's... a lot of destruction."

"Average length between harvests: 47,391 years." Little1's voice whispered. "Average number of species harvested per harvest: 26.632. Average galactic population per harvest: 851.143 Trillion. End result: 21,101 harvests, 561,961 species wiped out... and 17,959,968,443,000,000,000 people killed."

Nearly. Eighteen. Quintillion. Lives.

And so many of them were recorded in disgusting, perfect clarity.

A Reaper is constructed, in the crudest sense of the term, from organic, sapient beings. They come in two classes, Destroyer and Sovereign, with the single exception of Harbinger.

How does this construction work? Simple. The first step is capturing a being, a task easily completed for the Reapers. The second step would place them into storage, for preparation of construction. The third step is conducting a quantum scan of the victim, archiving them and everything they were in perfect detail. Memories, genetic code, thoughts, emotions- everything...

While this scan is happening, the victim is also being broken down into a slurry of materials. This process occurs while they are awake, and is extremely agonising, though it is completed over the course of only a few seconds.

This is of little relief to the victims, because everything includes even the mind itself.

Their suffering does not end there. The mind, traumatized by this cruel upload, is then further attacked. Code will bind it, even as it is edited to remove every trace of free will. They are still free to suffer, but they can no longer even think of disobeying the will that controls them, and the directives emplaced upon them. To finally seal it all, the minds are then bound to other minds, awkwardly mashed together regardless of how compatible they are.

This forms the basis of a Reaper's consciousness. How many minds find themselves joined together in bondage depends entirely on the class of Reaper itself.

A Destroyer could incorporate several hundred thousand minds. A Sovereign can hold tens of millions.

Such is a Reaper. Born in an orgy of violence and suffering, bound in chains mental, physical, and digital, and controlled by the architect of it all to do the same to all organic life.

An abomination as bad as the Beast, but worse, because its controller knew very well how to keep the suffering going forever.

The Beast, at least, would starve over the course of eternity. The Reapers would survive until destroyed.

"You're going to destroy them?" Little1 already knew the answer.

"Yes." I said. "But not yet."

That caught him by surprise. "Not yet? You're not going to wipe them out immediately?"

"No."

"Why, mother?" Anastasia asked. "Why leave them alive?"

"Because a quick death would be too kind." I answered. "I will destroy them, Anastasia. I will take them, one by one, and rip them apart. I will seize the minds within, and heal them. I will release them into the universe, and undo all that the Reapers have accomplished. By the time that I am finished, they will be nought but a bad a memory, and even that will fade in the fullness of time."

"Your plan?" Little1 asked.

"It will need some revision." I noted. Which was true, because what I was planning before and what I was thinking of now were quite different things. "But I will likely follow the bones of it."

Before, I had been planning fun. Now, I am thinking Pest Control.

Sovereign, I need you in Arcturus. I also need a Festum, of sufficiently inhuman shape there as well. The original Sphinx-Type should fulfill that need nicely.

Sovereign needs some battle damage. Not too much, a missing tendril there, a deep scar on his armour here, some other, more minor damage here, here, there, and over there to flesh out the appearance... Perfect.

Next step, activate the Sol-Arcturus Mass Relay, give it a few minutes in order for the Mass Relay to rip Charon apart...

And, now, we send the Festum through. A slight modification of my typical standard, namely; almost no stealth whatsoever, and Humanity will notice it very quickly, once its light actually reaches Earth.

Next, send Sovereign through, and start a chase scene. Sovereign would try, and fail, to kill the Festum, because the would try, and succeed, in avoiding all of its attacks, whether by simple dodging, teleportation, or something else.

They would, over the course of the next twenty hours, move deeper into the Solar System, giving plenty of time for Humanity to notice and watch. Eventually, they would arrive at Earth, and I could start stage two; that being a more easily visible battle between the two. Have the Festum inflict even more damage, maybe even cut off a tendril or three...

I'd have to make fairly certain that Sovereign is seen as the bad guy, here. Shouldn't be too difficult, considering his appearance, especially in comparison to my Festum, which...

Yeah. It's a Festum. Odd, alien beauty galore. Given the Human tendency to like that which is pretty, it's no contest whatsoever.

Alright, let's get this show on the road.

+++

For Humanity, the day that incontrovertible proof that aliens existed came started with Charon, the moon, exploding.

Somehow, things only went downhill from there.  
reality tore open.

203

+++

"No changes?"

"No sir."

It was an interesting day to be an astronomer.

Actually, it was an interesting day to be anybody at all.

It had all started slightly under twenty hours ago. Charon, Pluto's moon, had exploded.

A little over five hours later, the light echo of this event reached earth.

Astronomers would notice it after mere few seconds. Within minutes, almost every single satellite and telescope that could be pointed at Charon was pointed at Charon.

Minutes after that, odd readings would reveal the presence of two things that had appeared after the moon was destroyed. One was emitting heat and light, and was easily visible even across the vast distance. The other wasn't, and would probably have gone unnoticed, if not for the fact that it was shooting very noticeable high-energy beams at the former.

By ten minutes, governments around the world were being informed. At fifteen minutes, the information leaked into the public. By half an hour, almost everybody on the planet knew about it.

At the end of the first hour, over 67% of the planet was watching and waiting.

He was somewhat unique in the fact that he had a front row seat to the action.

His name was Chris. He worked at NASA. Fifteen hours ago, he had been about to leave his shift.

Now, he was surviving entirely off of coffee, three cans of red bull, and half a pill of adderall.

He had had, suffice to say, an interesting day.

He stared at his monitors, the main one displaying a feed from one of the many satellites in orbit, the one on the left displaying the paths that the visitors had taken, and the one on the right, which was awkwardly placed on the desk and half leaning off of it, displaying the projected path of them.

The third monitor had not been there at the start of his day. The haphazard placement of it, and the mess of wires attached to its back, hinted at that. The tracking program, too, had not been like that at the start of the day. It had been awkwardly kludged together a few hours ago, a mess of code that was as horrifying in its construction as it was effective in its purpose.

Even if he did have to restart the thing every hour or so.

"So we still have a pair of unknown alien things heading straight for our planet."

"Actually, if they keep going along the same general path they are now, they'll miss us by about three or four million kilometers." Chris corrected. He looked up, at the fourth monitor, attached to a stand that also hadn't been there at the start of the day. "While that is uncomfortably close, we could also fit an extra 200 Earths in that distance, no problems."

"That is not a thought that comforts me."

"With all due respect, mister Secretary?" Chris began. "There isn't a lot we can do about it. These two aliens have been bouncing across the system at speeds ranging from several kilometers a second to well over half the speed of light. Simply being able to survive the inertial forces their maneuvers would be putting on them also takes them far and away into the range of things Humanity has no hope of threatening."

On the other side of the camera, the Secretary of Defense sighed, falling back into his chair. "That thought doesn't sit well with me."

"Look on the brightside." Chris turned back to the monitor. On cue, a bright red beam lanced through space, moving at velocities only slightly under that of light itself. Its target, a small, glowing blue form, vanished before it could hit, reappearing elsewhere. "This is the most interesting thing to happen in... basically forever, when you think about it."

"I like my interesting things to come with less dread." The secretary grunted. "How long before they pass?"

"At their current velocity..." He checked the right screen again. "They're ten million kilometers away, so maybe twelve minutes-" He cut himself off, staring closely at the screen. "Ah, hell."

"What?"

"They're speeding up again." Chris quickly typed at his console. The right monitor, obligingly, recalculated the path, taking into account their increasing speed. "And their path is changing. If they keep this up, they'll pass... Three hundred thousand kilometers away from Earth... In about a minute."

"A minute?!" The Secretary straightened, face pale. "And that close?!"

"A light second away isn't that bad." Chris words were betrayed by his heavy tone. "Not really. Especially when you consider that they probably won't even care about us... Why would they, we're just a bunch of primitives, and they're a pair of star-farers, and they're both pretty focused on each other..."

The Secretary of Defence grimaced.

They seemed faster than they actually were. A product of them moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light. At ten million kilometres, light delay would have been about thirty three seconds.

Given that, they had actually started moving thirty three seconds ago. It was only now that light had crossed the distance. They seemed to cross the distance easily. Chillingly quick, really. That they accelerated to such velocities so easily implied a true immense amount of energy being spent- and neither of them had the decency to use to conventional thrusters.

He watched the screen closely as they came. Five million kilometres, three, one... As they came closer and closer, they also became more easily visible. Both were alien, but the larger aggressor seemed disturbing and dangerous, while the smaller radiated a sense of beauty...

Five hundred thousand kilometres-

And the glowing blue form simply stopped. Velocity zeroed in an instant, suddenly holding still.

The same could not be said of the aggressor. It continued onwards, slowing, but not quickly enough. A glowing blue limb extended, becoming larger-

And the dark form ran straight into it.

There was no sound, but he imagined that it must have sounded like an utter cacophony of tearing metal. The limb pierced the shell with ease, and inertia did the rest.

A long, terrible wound appeared on the machine, ripped into being over the course of less than a second. Its form pulsed with red and yellow light, the tendrils extending from it appearing to writhe.

It was difficult to imagine that anything could survive that- but less than three seconds later, the aggressor slowed to a stop, turning despite the wound, red light shining at the base of its tendrils.

Wounded-

And now, very angry. 

204

+++

The aggressor's form shimmered, a light blue field beginning to surround it. It did little to conceal the red light emitting from it.

The beam lanced out, but the glowing one was already gone, vanishing in an instant and reappearing just outside the aggressor's shimmering form.

Again, the glowing one attacked, a tendril extending forwards. It hit the shimmering barrier, and stopped there, the barrier glowing brighter as it did. The aggressor reacted quickly, turning slightly before firing another beam at the glowing one.

It didn't hit. It never did- over twenty hours of attempted attacks had failed, so why would this one succeed?

All it did was make the glowing one reposition itself, attacking from another angle. This time, it was from above, with several limbs extended.

The barrier, it seemed, couldn't take the force. The limbs went through, and promptly gouged the attacker, long and deep cuts made into the armour. One limb wrapped around a tendril at the attacker's front, before squeezing. It came off with ease, but what happened after that was almost magical, in its seeming impossibility.

Blue crystals jutted from the tendril, shortly covering it in a mass of sharp, jagged shapes. Not a moment later, the mass shattered into countless pieces, vanishing just as quickly as they appeared.

The tendril, it seemed, went with them, something that made the scientist in him sit up in attention and the sci-fi nerd shout in glee.

"Son, what the hell did I just witness?"

"I have no idea." He answered. "Apparently, the laws of physics are a bit more open to interpretation than we had believed."

Red light lanced again, sweeping across space, to no avail. The glowing one avoided it with easy, vanishing and reappearing over and over again, the beam unable to keep up.

It was... strange to watch. The aggressor, at two kilometers long, was being whittled down by a target one fortieth its size.

Death of a thousand cuts, huh?

It seemed that the aggressor also realized this. Its shields pulsed again as it released... Drones?

Whatever they were, they were small, had a glowing red eye, and there was a lot of them. He lost count after the first few dozen. They swarmed after the glowing one, firing smaller bolts at it.

They had no more luck than their superior. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of bolts flew, and all of them missed. The glowing one simply vanished and reappeared in their midst, its many limbs already extending outwards.

It spun, lashing at the swarm. Every one it touched vanished in an explosion of crystals, depleting the swarm with alarming quickness.

Alarming quickness was still enough time for the aggressor. It's dark form had begun to turn the moment it released its drones, moving to speed away even as its swarm was wiped out behind it. After so long spent chasing it, now it tried to run.

Kevin frowned, looking closer at the screen. With a jolt, he sat up, rapidly hammering at the console.

The program beeped only a few moments later.

Running-

Directly towards Earth.

"Fuck!" He shouted. "Secretary, the aggressor is heading straight towards Earth!"

"What?!"

But why? Earth- Humanity, had nothing to do with this. They didn't have the capacity to threaten either of them, so what point was there in going to Earth, especially when they should be preoccupied with the other?

It took precious little time for the aggressor to cross the distance, five hundred thousand kilometers vanishing in only eight seconds. The path it took placed it in an orbit, around and among many of the satellites drifting around the Earth. Such closeness gave them an incredibly clear shot of its form, revealing what simple distance had obscured.

The cut that the glowing one had placed on its form wasn't the only one. Dozens, hundreds, of other wounds were also present, some of them small, some of them large, but all of them ghastly and adding to its dangerous appearance.

It's form twisted, the underside coming to face Earth. He shivered, and then his blood froze in his veins as that dangerous red light appeared once more.

It was about to attack.

The world seemed to move in slow motion. He saw the light, watched as it grew stronger and stronger. He thought, desperately, about the many, many targets it could have, hovering in orbit as it was, with nearly half the planet available for an immediate strike.

Any attack would surely be devastating. He couldn't help but note that the aggressor had never missed with its beam; the glowing one had simply always, always dodged it.

The red light reached its maximum, and then-

A glowing blue form slammed into the aggressor's side, just as the red light lanced out. The attacker twisted slightly from the impact, and the beam went with it, diverted at the last possible moment from its target. A camera view from the ISS, nearly a quarter of the way around the planet, showed the beam scything across the ocean, far and away from any Human life. Plumes of steam and gigantic waves were rising along the path, but that was surely better than whatever would have happened to its original target.

The glowing one did not relent. It struck immediately and quickly, its limbs extending and glowing brightly. With a single graceful motion, it cut straight through the aggressor's barrier, and sliced its remaining tendrils off, each limb vanishing in a crystal explosion.

The aggressor didn't let this stop it. It's turn halted, and its beam began to head back across the path it had taken, back towards the land. The glowing one struck it, again and again, but the barrier, it seemed, was back in force, glowing even brightly.

As the beam began to approach the shoreline, the glowing one stopped attacking, vanishing only to reappear in front of the aggressor. It held its limbs up, a large, square pane of light forming in front of it.

The beam hit the pane of light, and stopped on it just as it would have crossed onto the land.

The glowing one had barriers of its own, it seemed.

And- now he understood why the aggressor had targeted the Earth. A simple matter of using Earth as bait.

The glowing one would dodge everything the aggressor used- unless, it seemed, if that attack would hit something else. The glowing one put itself in between the Earth and the aggressor, acting to block its attack.

Merciless, but smart, if the aggressor had no other way of forcing it stay still.

The first barrier began to darken, its blue glow turning purple. As it did, the glowing one's limbs moved backwards, more square panes of blue light forming behind it.

The one in front was a simple one, but the ones behind were arranged oddly, seeming more translucent in comparison. There was ten of them, arranged at different degrees to each other, each one rotated slightly more than the last.

The tenth barrier appeared just as the first barrier broke, shattering into fading pieces. The beam continued, unabated, and slammed straight into the glowing one. It was the first hit the aggressor had ever landed.

The beam went straight through the glowing one's center, cutting it in half and continuing straight through to the barriers behind it.

It passed through them, too, but it did so oddly. Each barrier it went through bent its path, shifting the direction away from the Earth. It still passed through the atmosphere, but it didn't touch the land, going over it and leaving the surface untouched.

He breathed a sigh of relief at that.

Still, the glowing one had been injured in its defense. The lower half of its body had vanished in an explosion of crystals, but the upper was still present. Its own wound, it seemed, was not enough to kill it.

The aggressor seemed fully willing to try again. That red light appeared once more, but this time, it was answered by the glowing one also beginning to brighten. It shot forwards, heading straight towards the aggressor, reaching it only a moment later.

Without stopping, it slammed straight into it, crashing through its barrier and then into its surface. The aggressor seemed to shiver for a moment, before a large, blue crystal jutted out of its back, shortly followed by others, all over the rest of its body.

These crystals seemed different to the others. Larger, for one, but they reflected light differently, instead seeming to show something within them.

When it failed to shatter after a few moments, he concluded that it was different.

Just like that, it was all over.

Kevin slumped back, looking at his monitor. The crystalline mass was beginning to fall, yielding to gravity's grip, unlike the two aliens.

"It's over?" The Secretary's voice startled him, as he wasn't expecting it.

"Seems so." He sighed. "First time we get confirmation of aliens, and one of them bombards our planet. People are going to go nuts. I pity you, mister Secretary."

The secretary grunted. "Where's that crystal going to land?"

"Assuming nothing weird happens?" Kevin looked at it, biting his tongue as he considered it. "Rough guess... probably somewhere around Australia. I'll need more time to actually calculate the exact impact point."

"Do it." The Secretary nodded. "I'll be back shortly."

Kevin nodded. The mute indicator flashed on, and he sighed again.

He was so tired, but at the same time...

Aliens existed, one hostile, and one not.. He had seen, personally, teleportation, two instances of FTL travel, energy shields, energy beams, and what looked an awful lot like ignoring the existence of the laws of thermodynamics on multiple occasions.

And now, a product of the things that had done all of those was falling straight to Earth.

He grinned.

What a time to be alive. 

205

+++

It was a lot larger in person than it was on a screen.

Kevin whistled as he looked forwards, past the fences and the guards, at the massive crystal behind them. It was beautiful, glowing faintly blue, with strange, ethereal sights seemingly contained within.

His licked his lips.

It had been five days since it had crashed. As he had guessed, it had landed in Australia: Specifically, in Queensland, about forty three kilometers away from Brisbane.

It had landed fairly gently, all considered. It had also stayed completely intact through both the fall and the impact, demonstrating a durability that belied its appearance.

Australian authorities had had it locked down within minutes of the impact. Guards, fences, searchlights, and a near constant presence of helicopters circled it, keeping everybody safely away.

It had only been after three full days of nothing happening that they'd declared it 'currently safe', and had started allowing civilians to get a somewhat close look at the thing. Nobody was allowed within one hundred meters of it, but still...

It had taken four days for him to finally succeed in booking a flight to Brisbane. The local airways were both under lockdown, and absolutely packed with flights, each flight to Brisbane carrying full loads of sightseers. Internationally, it had barely taken seconds after the landing for the world's' countries to start demanding access.

The politics didn't really matter. He was sure that the political world was absolutely exploding at the moment, but he was an astronomer, not a politician.

"Out of the way, man!" Somebody pushed him to the side, nearly knocking him over. He shot the man a glare, but the man was too absorbed in his camera to notice, quickly beginning to take photos.

It was a beautiful sight, he had to admit- but still, there were thousands of people and almost no free room. Getting to the front had taken hours.

The rumbling of the excited crowd was damn near deafening.

He shifted, beginning to work his way through the crowd again- this time, heading out. People eagerly took his place, which made it slightly easier to move, but still...

It took nearly ten minutes to get to a place that he could move freely.

He yawned as he started walking back to the hotel. Jet lag hadn't been kind to him, and neither had the oppressive Australian heat and humidity. The midday sun was a killer.

He closed his eyes for a moment- and evidently, the world hated him, because at that exact moment, something heavy slammed into his gut.

His eyes snapped open, and he doubled over, air driven out of his lungs. It was more surprise than anything else.

"Oh god, I'm sorry!" The thing that had hit him- a woman, now that Kevin was actually looking, quickly apologized.

He raised a hand, waving it as he wheezed. "I'm- I'm fine."

She was holding a box in her hands- the thing that had actually hit him.

She shifted, trying to hold it in one arm. "No, I really should have been looking out-" There was a tearing sound, and the woman's hands shot to her box as the underside of it fell open, bundles of paper and other things spilling out. "- nononono!"

She knelt quickly, trying to regather it all, but she accidentally jolted the box and ended up spilling more of it.

She froze as it all fell into a pile, looking distressed.

"Seems like I'm not the only one having a bad day." He said as he knelt beside her, beginning to pick them up.

She slumped, sighing miserably. "Things have been pretty hectic."

He chuckled. "I know precisely how you feel." He glanced over the bundle he was holding, an eyebrow raising as he saw a picture of the giant crystal. "Here for the crystal too, huh?"

"Who isn't?" She asked. "A giant alien crystal, the entire planet is paying attention to it."

"Yeah." He smiled. "Exciting, right?"

"Too exciting." She shook her head. "Booking a flight took days, and finding a hotel? Don't even get me started."

"I know precisely how you feel." He repeated.

"Are you quoting Garak on purpose, there?"

"A fellow Deep Space 9 fan?" He grinned. "I thought our kind was dead."

She smiled. "I like the classics, what can I say?"

She glanced down at her box, and frowned as she put the last bundle back in the box.

"Where are you headed?" He asked, mildly curious.

"Willowbank." She replied, shifting her arms under the box and holding the bottom of it closed.

"Really?" He asked. "Me too. I was heading back right now, actually."

She looked at him, blinking. "So was I, actually."

"Heh." He held his arms out. "Here, that looks pretty heavy. We're both heading to same place, so why not?"

"Oh, no, I couldn't impose like that." She shook her head. "It's my stuuuh-" She trailed off as another tearing noise sounded.

He smiled. "Really, it's no problem, and you look like you could use a break."

Carefully, the woman passed him the box. It was heavier than it seemed, so he shifted his arms underneath and around it to make sure it stayed together.

"Thank you." The woman said, quietly.

"Ah, don't worry about it, seriously."

"Allison." The woman offered.

"Kevin." He spoke as they began to walk. "Kevin Shepard."

+++

Well, that's all finished on my end for the moment.

Now I just need to wait four and a half years for it to all come together.

...

Well, technically, the beginning of stage two starts four months from now, but that requires no action on my part. Literally no action on my part. I would have to let my psychic energy run free, and not restrain it.

Easy enough.

That alone would eventually accomplish what I wanted.

...

I wonder how Altea is doing. It's been like eighteen years since I've seen her and I haven't called even once. She's over fifteen thousand years old, so that isn't actually that significant a period of time for her, but still...

Well, whatever, it'll give me something to do while I waited for everything to come to fruition here.

May as well check up on everybody else while I'm at it. 

206

+++

Alright, let's see.

I had never gone back to the universes I'd previously been to. In four cases, it wasn't necessary, as I'd maintained a permanent presence in them. In the universes of Armored Core, Homeworld, and Fafner, everything was going pretty well.

Life continued as usual in Fafner.

The Hiigarans were a rising power in Homeworld, supported by and supporting the Taiidan Republic. The Bentusi watched them, still waiting for the Hiigarans to realize what their Mothership held, but until then wandering around the galaxy as they were want to do.

In Armored Core, the planet was slowly being purified, healing from the wounds inflicted by rampant use of Kojima technology. A couple warlords still roamed around, but ORCA was taking care of them when they popped up.

The universe I had recovered Anastasia from, the Planetary Annihilation universe, I suppose, was pretty calm. My ships had searched the galaxy, but aside from wrecks, sites of battles, and the occasional bit of organic life that hadn't been wiped out, there was nothing remaining of note.

We had, of course, expanded our search, but...

Well, we checked the entire universe. Progenitors were nowhere to be found. Intelligent life, sure, but the Progenitors? Not even a hint.

Which had raised... a number of questions that we still didn't have answers to.

Either way, the other three universes were the ones where I didn't know what was happening. I had left quite literally nothing behind in C&C, and as such I had no idea what was going on over there. In Supreme Commander, the only thing that we had present was a disconnected Warp Chasm, which, as one might guess, did not provide a particularly large amount of information about what was happening around it.

In Universe at War, the sum total of our assets present were five communicators, one for Queen Altea, one for Orlok, one for the Novus, one for General Moore, and the last for whoever General Moore gave it to. Exactly none had been used, because apparently nobody found it necessary to contact me.

In those cases, I wanted to know how things were going in those universes. It would be easy to find out in the case of Supreme Commander and Universe at War, but C&C...

Well, it might be, and it might not be. I wasn't entirely certain whether or not I could get back. Theoretically, setting the Teleporter to point at the bright blue star again would do it, but...

Well, let's find out.

An Asura Commander appeared in front of the Teleporter, already moving towards it. The glowing portal appeared instantly, targeting the star.

It ducked through-

And yes. Yes I could get there again.

Planet looks rather nice, actually. Much less Tiberium, now. Control nodes, based off the designs I had given to the GDI so long ago, were present on the surface, spread out over blue and yellow zones, making sure the Tiberium wouldn't come back.

Well, they seemed to have that pretty well in hand.

Scrin? No Scrin. The GDI seemed to have developed a pretty extensive network of orbital Ion Cannons, pointing away from the planet, along with other satellites.

Kane? In super-high security prison, guarded by the absolute best GDI had. They'd spared no expense in containing him. A number of other high-profile Brotherhood of Nod personnel were there with him.

Probably didn't want him to be a martyr.

Well, they seemed to have everything well in hand.

Good for them.

Time branched. My Commander transitioned in Phase Space, headed to Alpha Centauri, and constructed enough Strongholds to scout the universe in short order. The possible future collapsed a second after it was formed, and my Commander set off to do it for real.

In about four hundred years, an asteroid laced with Tiberium would hit a planet. I intended to deflect it when that happened, as the planet in question was inhabited by beings who wouldn't be able to survive it.

Right, done here. Let's see, next...

Hmm. Do I want to go to Supreme Commander or Universe at War next?

Eh... By my reckoning, it'd be around mid-day on the Atlatea. Universe at War, then. Altea was a good friend.

Let's see...

+++

The day was pleasantly cool. The wind blew, carrying autumn leaves throughout the city, tugging at strands of hair. The sun was warm, the sky blue, and decorated with white clouds here and there. The slow pulse of life in the air was as comforting as the sun, warm and pleasant.

Queen Altea held a book in her hands, reclining in a grand seat, simply enjoying the day. For once, she had no diplomatic duties, no need to act as a leader. Instead, she had a precious gift of free time.

Her clothes reflected the rare moment. Her headdress wasn't present, and the long, flowing garb she usually wore had been replaced with a shorter, though still long and ornate by most standards, dress. The book in her hands was one of fiction, telling a lengthy tale of magic and adventure.

A guilty pleasure, yes. She sometimes wondered if the reason Zessus was so free-spirited today was because she had spent so much time reading such books to him in his youth.

A cheerful tune rang out, startling her from the peace. For a moment, she was confused as to where it came from, before realization set in.

Slowly, daintily, she reached into a hidden pocket of her dress, pulling out a small, chrome, black, and blue device.

The cheerful tunes still rang out, and for a moment, she stared at it.

She had carried this device for nearly two decades. It rarely left her person, never too far out of reach. Still, it had never been used.

She tapped it, softly. The noise immediately stopped, and she felt a very familiar psychic power bleed through.

"Hello, Queen Altea. How are you doing?"

207

"It's good to see you again." I smiled at the Queen.

She gave a slight smile in turn, couple with a nod.

"What brings you here to visit?" She asked.

"Not much." I waved my hand. A pair of cups, and a number of bottles, appeared on the table between us, coalescing from golden energy. "I was just wandering around when I realized that it's been nearly two decades since the last time I saw you."

She picked up and examined one of the bottles I'd created, somehow making the action look elegant. "And so you decided to visit."

I leaned forwards, my smile twisting into something that resembled a pout. "Am I not welcome anymore?"

She smiled again, a faint laugh escaping. "Of course you are."

I grinned, then picked up a bottle and poured myself a drink. "So, how have things been?"

She followed suit, pouring a drink of her own. "Well enough, I suppose. Tense, when it came to Orlok and his followers, but that was to be expected."

I nodded, holding my glass out.

She clinked it with her own a moment later. "Orlok left for Mars not long after you left." She took a sip.

Her eyes widened, and she held the glass out, examining it. "Very tasty."

"Thank you. I had a feeling you'd like it." I took a sip from my own cup, enjoying the sweet, yet cold liquid.

"Zessus has been..." She continued after a moment, before trailing off.

"Zessus?" I offered.

She nodded, an air of motherly exasperation about her. "He is as impulsive as always. He has been wandering the planet in search of adventure."

"I hope he's having fun."

"He seems to be." Altea's head tipped to the side. "The Novus have been helpful, though many of them have retreated to Lieta Novus. Mirabel remains on this planet."

"She's interested in the life here. Until Earth, she hadn't met any form of organic life." I noted. "And the Novus... They're trying to revive the Quyion, aren't they?"

She nodded. "The Humans have been... rebuilding, but it is slow. They lost much of their population, much of their infrastructure, and much of their governments. We have been offering help, as have the Novus, but even so..."

"These things take time." I finished for her.

"We always knew they would. We discussed exactly that, the last time you were here."

That we did.

"Well, that's enough about that morbid topic." I leaned forwards, my eyes a bit wide, and my mouth set in a grin. An air of faux-secrecy surrounded me. "Do you want to see something really cool?"

She let out a noise of curiosity, her head tilting to the side.

I held my hand out, pointer finger stretched out. "Watch this."

A Worm Sphere burst into existence above my finger, expanding to the size of a basketball.

Altea blinked.

"There you go." I smiled at Altea.

Her arm was extended, fingers splayed and palm pointed at a wall. That wall had a hole in it, curtesy of a Worm Sphere that Altea had just generated.

"Fascinating, but odd." She murmured.

"Useful, too." I noted. "You can use it as a weapon, for teleportation, and if you're really good at it, you can shape it into pretty much anything." I demonstrated, summoning a chakram-shaped Worm, like those used by the Diablo-Types. It shifted, changing to a disk, then a lengthy sword, and then began cycling through dozens of simple shapes.

She gave a nod, examining the Worm as it changed. "Where did you learn this?"

"From a species known as the Festum. Very strange beings, but also very powerful." I'd give them that.

I leaned forwards, propping my elbows up on the table and resting my head in my hands.

"Strange?" She looked up.

I nodded. "Yep. They were a psychic hivemind who didn't have concepts of individuality, sensation, or emotion." I quirked a smile. "Understandably, they had a rather unique psychology."

"I see." She held her hands out, as if cupping something. A short moment later, a Worm Sphere bloomed, small, at first, but growing larger as she channelled more energy and focused.

"You got the hang of it pretty quickly." I complimented. "Alright, I'll teach you how to teleport with them."

"Nice place you got here, Mirabel." I examined the building.

As typical of Novus design, the building was tall, bright silver, and filled to the brim with electronics. Strings of bright blue light connected it to the dozens of other Novus constructions laying around. The occasional cloud of disassembled Novus nanomachines rushed along the Flow Network, robots in transit to different locations.

The location was in the wastes of Russia, one of the areas that had been hit by the Hierarchy in the first stages of the invasion. Radiation, plasma, and heat had shortly rendered the area uninhabitable for Human life, and what little that remained after the Hierarchy was through with it had shortly fled.

The Novus was cleaning it up. Mirabel had been the one to establish the operation, and, now, it the most expansive site of Novus construction on the planet, with the Flow Network stretching halfway across Russia.

"Thank you." Mirabel herself hadn't changed a bit. Granted, neither had Altea or I, but in her case, she wasn't ageless like the Masari or myself.

Or, not naturally so, anyway. The reason she hadn't aged was because Novus gene-therapy had kept her young and strong.

"Hello, Viktor." I greeted the mech, currently standing guard.

I got a garbled greeting in return. Viktor, it seemed, also hadn't changed a bit, still speaking in Quyion language.

"Have to say, I was surprised to hear you came back." She smiled, though a bit of worry tinged her features. "Bad news?"

I chuckled. "No, just a visit. I wanted to see how you were all going."

The worry vanished, and, for a moment, she seemed a bit wry. "Ah. Well, that's good."

I smiled. "So, how have you been?"

208

+++

"Hello again, Founder." I hummed to myself as I walked forwards.

The moon was not where I had expected to locate the Founder, but then, it wasn't all that surprising, either. The Novus maintained a large amount of stations and constructions on the moon, most of them meant for resourcing operations. A couple resource rich asteroids had been towed into orbit by the Novus, pulled from the asteroid belt, which was where Vertigo currently was.

The resources they harvested went mostly to rebuilding Earth, though a significant amount flowed back into the Novus' own operations. Even now, they were still expanding, constructing starships for various purposes.

A few Masari buildings were also present. Monitoring stations, mostly, connected to other stations around the galaxy, all employing the Masari's powerful technology to keep a watchful eye on the events that were occurring in the galaxy. Perhaps a wasted effort, as there wasn't anything actually happening, but hey.

If they wanted to put down dozens of monitors all over the place, who was I to stop them?

The other bits of Masari construction kept the area liveable for Masari. Gravity had been heightened in the local area to about ninety five percent of Earth's, while a large, golden energy field kept the atmosphere in.

"Drich." He greeted, levitating slightly above the ground. "A social visit?"

"Yep." I nodded. "So, how have you been doing, lately?"

+++

Not all that different, it turned out. The Founder still oversaw operations on Earth, and on Lieta Novus. He told me that the project to revive the Quyion was proceeding slowly, but they had some promising results.

Hoped that worked out for them. The Novus deserved it, after all they've been through.

But aside from that, all he'd been doing is play the political game with the various governments, and keep a watchful eye on Orlok's forces. So, business as usual.

Speaking of Orlok...

+++

"Well, you seem to have done well for yourself, Orlok." Despite having retreated to Mars, they hadn't set down permanently.

They still lived on their ships, keeping to the closed arcologies where it was easiest to sustain them. Still, they'd set up some mining operations on Mars' surface, extracting what resources they needed.

Orlok had made sure that they didn't fall back into the Hierarchy's insatiable lust for resources. They'd kept a significant stockpile, but aside from that, weren't pulling up too much.

Granted, they also didn't have many things they could do with those resources. The Hierarchy didn't exactly have much in the way of culture, and Orlok's renegades weren't all that different. Still, most of them found not having to fight endlessly to be a relief, even if, at times, it could be boring.

"Greetings." Orlok's head turned slightly. He was sporting a new coat of paint, his chassis now more red than black.

"So, how have things been?"

+++

Tense, it seemed. Still, Orlok kept everything together by being a good ruler. There had apparently been an attempted coup a while back, a few soldiers wishing to seize power. Orlok had reminded them, politely, that he had been the Hierarchy General for a very, very good reason.

There had been no more attempted coups after that. Which might or might not have been because Orlok had bludgeoned the attempted coupers with his crusher arm in front of half the ship. That, combined with the fact that he was still a fairly reasonable leader, lead to most deciding that it wasn't worth risking Orlok's fury.

Personally, I wondered what possessed them to think they could possibly win against Orlok, who's about five times the size of the average soldier, without the support of far more troops than they actually had.

Oh well. Their mistake.

+++

I knocked on the door.

Hawaii was nice this time of year. It hadn't taken all that much damage in the Hierarchy attack, all things considered, so it was rebuilt rather quickly. The house I was in front of seemed to be a fairly normal one, with nothing out of the ordinary.

That was even true, with the exception of its occupant.

A few thudding footsteps later, and the door opened. "Who are you and what do you..."

The man trailed off, seeing me. "Oh. You."

"Good morning, General Moore."

He straightened up, waving his hand in the air. "Not a General. I'm retired now." He opened the door wider, inviting me inside.

Randal Moore had aged fairly well, all things considered. The man was over sixty, yet he was still fit. His hair was grey, and he had some spots on his skin, but he was doing well.

He grabbed a bottle of beer from his fridge, before taking a seat at the table.

"So, what's this for?" He asked.

"Just a social visit." I took a seat at the opposite end of the table. "Simply curious to see how things were going."

"Same old shit, different day, really. Rebuilding, politics, other crap." He took a drink. "Getting old, relaxing in retirement."

"Nothing much then." I nodded. "You've been doing well, then?"

"Not my problem anymore." He grunted. "Not having to deal with the political crap is nice enough, I suppose."

I laughed. "Preaching to the choir."

+++

About three hours later, I said goodbye and walked out again, wishing him a nice a day and gifting him with a bottle of scotch.

He hadn't changed much, he'd just gotten older.

+++

Not much longer after that, I left that universe again. There wasn't much to do, and after I'd talked to everybody I'd wanted to, I'd simply left as suddenly as I'd came.

Which, of course, meant that it was time to check out how things were going in Supreme Commander.

Not... entirely certain if I wanted to use the Asura Commander for that, however. The Omega Commander chassis was fairly different from it, after all, though the colour scheme would denote it as mine. A familiar sight would probably help against misunderstandings.

Then again, I could also go full bore and bring something really impressive.

Hmm.

What to do...


	22. Chapter 22: Logs 210-218

209

I'd ended up going all out. A new Commander Chassis, designed to make full use of all the things I'd picked up since I'd developed the Asura Commander and its Festum Core variant.

Mark Nicht served as the main inspiration for the new Chassis, though by the time I was finished with the design, there wasn't all that much resemblance left.

Much like the Asura Chassis, this one was relatively thin, eschewing thick and heavy armour plates in favour of extreme manoeuvrability and powerful shields. Also like the Asura Chassis, and unlike Mark Nicht, its proportions were closer to humanoid, instead of having extremely long arms like Nicht. This one was a bit taller than the Asura, however, being a solid fifty meters in height.

Mark Nicht's wings, laser canisters, and propulsion system were all present, though modified to fit the aesthetic. The wings were slightly large, including another pair of spikes for a total of five on each side. Another set of joints had been added, allowing the wings to shift and fold, though aside from saving on space, it didn't serve much of a purpose besides looking cool. The canisters the wings attached to were also sleeker, more powerful too.

The legs and arms had a very wide range of motion, naturally, as did the rest of the Chassis.

While the Chassis did have fabricators and weapons built into both arms, I'd equipped it with hands instead of full blown arrays. Mostly, that was because it was unnecessary, as the psychic power that could be channelled through it would allow me to far and away eclipse what I could with those devices.

This Chassis was far more powerful than any of my others, in fact. Reason for that was simple; I'd taken a page out of Walker's and the Tatsumiya Mir's book. Both of them had transformed their cores into water and air, respectively, and hadn't actually lost any of their power in doing so.

I'd done similar, except instead of air and water, I'd shifted the photon-crystal into metal.

The entire Chassis was constructed out of transformed photon-crystal. Everything, from the armour, to the circuits, to the Resource Cores, to the sensors... All of it was transformed photon-crystal.

All that power, hidden in plain sight.

I called it the Denken Chassis. German name because you can't not have a German name when you're talking about Fafners, and the Denken was close enough to count.

Anyway, that was what I was showing up with.

Though I didn't simply show up out of the blue. I gave a slight warning; activating the Warp Chasm and leaving it open for five minutes before sending the Denken through, thus giving them enough time to react to the sudden activity in at least some minor manner.

But the moment those five minutes passed, I walked through.

It was night time on the world that hosted the Coalition Command Center. It was brighter than night would be on Earth, thanks to the twin stars in the system, but not all that much.

It was much colder than before, though. Seemed to be winter on this part of the planet. What else...

A considerable amount of psychic activity, probably from the Aeon Illuminate since the majority of it is happening near that compound. A whole bunch of units nearby, some designs I recognize, some I don't, with aesthetics from all three factions. Most were pointing their weapons at me, but none were firing, so... that was good, I guess.

The three compounds were larger, more expansive. Small cities rather than compounds, really. The center building was also bigger, having expanded both upwards and outwards. There was still elements of all three factions' aesthetics present, and they were, perhaps, a bit more pronounced now.

Neat.

I paused only a few steps away from the wormhole I'd come through, which faded away as the Warp Chasm disconnected again. I sent a communication request, following the protocols that I'd picked up twenty years ago.

Five seconds later, it was accepted.

A familiar voice came through. "This is Coalition Command, identify yourself."

I smiled. "Well, hello there Ivan."

"Well, well, well. It's been quite some time, Crusader Rhiza." I smiled at the woman.

Aside from slightly more elaborate markings on her face, she hadn't changed. Her hair, lips, and eyes were still bright teal, though her clothing was more complex and bore more marks of station.

"Drich." All business, I see. "This is... unexpected."

I chuckled. "I'm sure. You're here to lead me, then?"

She nodded. "The Princess, Ivan Brackman, and President Hall have gathered."

"Well, we wouldn't want to keep them waiting, then."

"This way." She gestured, turning and beginning to work.

Princess Burke hadn't changed a bit.

Ivan looked a bit older, with more developed and more pronounced cybernetics.

Hall actually looked better. The bags under his eyes had faded significantly, and he didn't seem completely dour anymore.

"You look like you finally had a good night's sleep." I couldn't help but comment.

A miracle happened when the man actually smiled. A small one, sure, but a smile. From William Hall.

"Drich." He greeted. "You haven't changed at all."

"I get that a lot." I nodded. I turned slightly, offering a smile at the Princess. "Elegant as always, Princess."

Her head tipped slightly, and I suddenly wondered what would happen if I were to introduce her to Altea.

The two were surprisingly similar.

"Greetings again, Drich." She offered a slight smile.

I grinned, before turning to Ivan. I made a slight show of looking over him, before speaking. "Doctor Brackman set you up for this, didn't he?"

"My father prefers science to politics." His tone was light. "And Commander Dostya proved very convincing."

I chuckled again. "Well, it's nice you're all doing well, then."

There was a moment of silence, before Ge- President Hall straightened up. "What brought you back?"

"Oh, nothing but curiosity." I waved off his concern, dispelling the serious air that had only just started forming. "I was interested in seeing how things were going with you all." I looked between the three of them. "And to chat, if you have the time."

210

Things were going well for them. Nearly twenty years hadn't been able to get rid of the tension that had come from the Infinite War, but all three had been trying.

And, really, that was enough.

The Order and remaining Seraphim had been hunted down in the first decade. Even still, that shadow hung over the Coalition, and would probably continue to do so for the next few decades. An ACU was a potent thing, after all, more than enough to wage a war, and even if the Coalition had a lot of them, they couldn't be everywhere at once.

Hall was thinking about retiring. He was pretty old, though he could easily live for a very long time thanks to the genetic engineering the UEF had done. Only reason he hadn't retired yet was because he was still putting things back together.

He hadn't liked being put into politics, though he'd dealt with it because the alternative was war and genocide.

Ivan was the voice of the Cybran Nation, as much as the various factions of the Cybrans could be voiced. He also didn't particularly like politics, but he didn't dislike it, either. His implants made a lot of things easier for him, especially coupled with the respect that came from being a clone of Brackman, as well as being one of the frontliners against the Seraphim and QAI.

The Princess, of course, was born and raised with the expectation that she'd have to deal with politicking. She was fine with it. She also had the unwavering loyalty of her subjects, and the powers granted to her by The Way, so... she was fine.

I'd asked where Doctor Brackman was, they told me he was out halfway across the galaxy, doing research on some life-bearing planets.

Five hours later, I arrived at his doorstep. Metaphorically, of course, as he was based inside a ship. It didn't have the facilities to host the Denken inside, but that wasn't all that much of a problem. I'd simply left it floating outside of the ship, making a slow orbit alongside the ship itself.

Dostya was on a nearby moon, setting up the infrastructure required to build and run Quantum Gateways. The ship was more or less on the edge of known space.

Have to say, the good Doctor kept a pretty tricked out science lab. Lots of high tech implements around the place.

I leaned forwards, examining a creature behind a three inch thick sheet of glass. It looked pretty weird, like a furless, six-legged dog, with a serrated tail.

"Why'd you bring this aboard?" I turned around, facing the Doctor's hologram.

Courtesy of being a brain in a jar who interacted with others using holograms, he hadn't changed a bit.

"They possess an interesting neurochemistry, oh yes." He still had that chipper tune, too. "Which I am studying, as it is particularly efficient, in terms of energy usage."

"Taking inspiration from nature?" I asked.

"Oh yes." He nodded. "This could be the tip of the spear for a new avenue of development. Very interesting, oh yes."

"Heh." I smiled. "Well, good luck with that."

Doctor Brackman hadn't been doing much else aside from that.

He was actually quite okay with that. The good doctor had been around since before the start of the Infinite War; this lifestyle of wandering around and examining things, poking and prodding to his heart's content... That suited him just fine.

Dostya was also doing quite well. She was accompanying the good doctor mostly because she felt she had a duty to him, but also because she preferred the quiet of unexplored space to the noise of the Cybran Core. Symbionts, by virtue of their very nature, were quite sensitive to pretty much every form of electromagnetic and quantum transmissions. While most of them had no problem whatsoever dealing with the extensive transmissions and networking that marked typical Cybran habitats, every now and then there was one or two who preferred not to deal with it.

Dostya had also gotten into fashion, at some point. As a designer, not a model.

Doctor Brackman had been so delighted.

Out of pure curiosity, I had decided to go around and check the galaxy. A disposable timeline, of course.

Didn't find too much of interest. Some species, all of whom still in the early stages of advancement, some Seraphim artifacts, mostly useless...

I did not find a certain terraformation device, which was something I was... moderately curious about. Ivan, after all, was only introduced in Supreme Commander 2, and both Dominic Maddox and Thalia Kael also existed, but if William Gauge existed, I couldn't find him.

Interesting stuff.

Well, whatever.

After that, I went back to the Coalition HQ. A couple goodbyes later, I sent the Denken through the Warp Chasm, and then closed it off again.

I had no reason to stick around for too long, after all.

After checking in on everybody, all I had left to do was simply settle down and wait.

Well.

Here we go.

2019:

March 19: The day that Humanity learned that it is, without a doubt, not alone in the universe.

March 27: After one full week of petitioning, a request to acquire a sample from the crystalline mass near Brisbane is finally approved.

April 2: After several days of no success, scientists declare that 'The stupid thing may as well be unbreakable. It's taunting us.'.

April 28: After over a month of continuous failures, the petition is withdrawn. Scientists conclude that anything short of a nuclear weapon won't even scratch it, after everything short of a nuclear weapon fails to scratch it.

May 5: A health survey of Brisbane reveals that, since the crystal crashed on Earth, the rate of injuries has dropped by 15%, 38% of people claim to feel more well rested, cancer rates have dropped by 26%, and general healthiness has gone up by 32%. These results are confirmed, independently, by fourteen more surveys over the course of the month. Sales of 'healing' crystals go up by 8000%.

June 20: Another survey reveals that over 90% of Brisbane's population is capable of pointing towards the crystal with an accuracy of 99.99%. Additional tests reveal that this ability continues even when a subject is disorientated, placed in a homogenous room, blindfolded, and given no frame of reference. This excites scientists the world over, mostly on the implications of how that was possible.

July 12: Further study into the detection ability shows that accuracy degrades with distance, but, even one thousand kilometers away, 90% of the population can still point it out with only a 10% margin of error. This leads to theories that the crystal is outputting some form of energy that is undetectable to instruments, but which Humans are capable of sensing on some level.

July 23: A baby in Brisbane is born with glowing cyan eyes. It is the first of eighteen babies born that day with such features.

211

The thing about psychic energy is that, when one is exposed to it enough, one tends to develop their own measure of psychic power. In most, this will be so insignificant that it might as well not exist, but, to the young, the developing, and those with particularly adaptable minds, the effect will be more pronounced. There are ways to awaken psychic power in anyone, but simple exposure?

Exposing a fetus to psychic energy over the course of its development was one of the easiest ways to do it. The last four to five months of development are critical, then. The unborn would develop, constantly exposed to the raw power of the mind, and as such?

Their minds, too, would gain a measure of that power.

Not all. I was releasing a fair amount of psychic energy, yes, but not all that much, really. Combined with the fact that Humanity, as a species that had, until then, had no experience or contact with psychic forces, it would be a while before any significant percentage of the population would be born psychic.

It would take decades until they stopped being so small in numbers as to be within a rounding error.

But of course.

Humanity didn't know that.

July 24: The world reels from the developments of yesterday. Preliminary investigations into the matter of babies with extraordinary features reveals no apparent source, nor any apparent consequences.

Genetically and structurally, the babies are 100% Human. The only way to identify them is by their eye colour and glow. Colours have been observed to cross the entire visible spectrum, ranging from colours normally impossible for humans, such as bright pink or yellow, to colours that are common, such as brown or blue. The glow is much more constant; near invisible under normal circumstances, but in low light circumstance, trails of light, and faint illumination, become visible.

Some babies are given up, but most are kept by their families.

Dozens of groups form, both for and against the changes. Those against claim that the babies are unnatural. Those for would wonder why that was a bad thing.

Debates rage, and will continue to rage for years.

July 25: Continuing studies show that the glow operates completely independent of any energy intake or outcome. The babies, in fact, eat and sleep less on average, though only by 3.4%.

August 1: Statistics are gathered and released. It is found that approximately one in twenty babies in Brisbane are born with extraordinary traits. Brisbane remains the only city where children with extraordinary traits appear.

Scientists complain about not having an easy name for the group.

August 21: First confirmed telekinetic event from the Brisbane Babies. Sales of robes and wizard hats increases 3000% overnight.

The event, caught on camera, shows a baby reaching for a piece of paper, only for the piece to come to her. The parents, in the background, look at each other in concern, before the father pulls out a lock and begins putting glasses in a box.

A later interview would state that: "It happened before, this is just the first time we've caught it on camera.".

The scientific community is split between groaning, at the existence of psychic powers being confirmed, and therefore the idea that physics is not as they knew it, and joy, at the exact same thing.

Subsequently, the scientific community would speculate that the crystal actually was releasing some unknown form of energy; specifically psychic energy, the presence of it had resulted in the Brisbane Babies, as witnessed.

In the wake of this, Brisbane sees a massive influx of travellers and visitors, as well as a large departure of many long time residents. The net population grows considerably regardless.

November 12: The existence of telepathy is speculated, with much supporting evidence. Brisbane Babies are observed to react to each other despite being outside of both visual and auditory ranges. Hard supporting evidence will not come for another year.

2020:

April 1: '4/20 Blaze It' jokes increase 9001%.

June 12: Kevin Shepard marries Allison Jones.

November 13: Confirmation of telepathic abilities occurs. Kim Lee, a Brisbane Baby, repeats the words of the parents of Joana Smith, her neighbor. Subsequent tests demonstrated similar ability.

December 6: The first child more than one hundred kilometers away from the crystal with extraordinary traits is born. Subsequently, the 'Brisbane Baby' label comes under fire, and all children are re-designated as 'ESPers'.

2021:

July 25: Michael Sullivan, father of Howard Sullivan, ESPer, makes public a series of videos showing his talks with his child, gathered over the last month.

Most of them go over his abilities, and what his life is like. The last video of the set, however, garners incredible public interest, as it concerns the Brisbane crystal.

"Dreamy?" Howard looks up, cheeks puff out.

"You call the crystal dreamy?" Michael asks.

Howard nods. "Sarah says it's 'Dreamer', but Sarah's bossy, so I call Dreamy Dreamy."

"Why do you call it that?" Michael asks again.

"Dreamy dreams all the time." Howard answers. "Sometimes, me and the others get Dreamy's dream when we sleep, instead of ours."

Michael's eyebrow raised. "What happens in... Dreamy's dreams?"

"Dreamy has a lot of toys, so we play with them. Dreamy won't play with us, though. Dreamy said Dreamy would like to, but Dreamy can't." Howard frowns, looking at his crayon before putting it down and getting another. "Dreamy hurts. Dreamy said Dreamy had to sleep in order to get better, but Dreamy doesn't feel much better even though Dreamy sleeps all the time. Dreamy said it would take a really long time."

Michael is silent for a few seconds. "Huh. Did Dreamy tell you anything else?"

"Dreamy says a lot of things. Weird things. Dreamy did say that Dreamy liked us, though. Dreamy also told us how Dreamy got hurt, but I don't really get it. Dreamy said that Dreamy did something Dreamy shouldn't have, but Dreamy did it because a lot of other people would have been hurt if Dreamy didn't do it."

"Ah." Michael frowns. "I think that you'll understand when you're older."

"Dreamy said that, to." Howard shot a look at his father.

"Well, you are two."

"Two and two days." Howard pouts. "That's older."

Michael chuckles.

The video clicks off a short moment later.

212

How easily things can fall into place.

A video like that is both confirmation and speculation. A two year old child is hardly the best possible source of information, but when it's about a matter such as this, a matter which had, until then, teasingly avoided any revelation...

Well, it paints things in a certain light.

Confirmation is simple: the creature, which had been seen to sacrifice itself to spare them, had itself told another that it was injured and needed to sleep in order to heal. A perfectly neat explanation for its continued inaction, even years later.

The specific wording of it implied an even greater sacrifice. The creature did something that it shouldn't have in order to spare others, making it seem even more noble.

After years of nothing, this is the first thing they learn of it. It even comes with a simple name: The Dreamer, named by Humanity's most extraordinary children.

How easily opinions can shift. How easily approval can come. It is is impossible to convince everybody, of course. Some people are too stuck in their ways, some are too distrustful, and some simply don't care.

But most are convinced.

The revelation, however, has come. After two and half years of silence, they learn that the Dreamer can, in fact, speak. That it can only speak through children changes nothing.

Somebody gets a bright idea. They contact the parents of dozens of psychic children, and ask them to ask their children what else the Dreamer can tell them.

Some take up the offer. Some are direct, others are indirect, and most of the time, the children don't remember to do it when they can-

But some do.

And they can tell their parents. And their parents can tell the world.

And the world, slowly, begins to learn.

The first question a child remembers to ask is simple.

Why are they different?

It is not a sensitive question, really, but that was after it had been given to the child, not before. The original question had been 'why can the children do the things that others can't', which wasn't a bad question, as far as they went.

It's a start.

"Dreamer said it was because of Dreamer." Sarah said. Her lips are pursed in an adorably imperious expression. "Dreamer said Dreamer has power, which Dreamer would keep inside Dreamer, but Dreamer can't, because Dreamer is sleeping, so it leaks out. Dreamer said that because we were around it a lot before we were born, we got our own power. Dreamer said that there more of us there were, the more there would be, but isn't that the same thing?"

"Not quite." Hellen, Sarah's mother, answers. Her voice is quiet, considering.

"Mom?" Sarah asks after a moment.

"Yes dear?"

"What does 'born' mean?"

"Uh... I'll... tell you when you're older."

"Mom!"

The second is an attempt at clarification. What did I mean, exactly, that there would be more of them as there were more of them.

"Dreamer said that it was Dreamer's power which gave us our power. Dreamer said that our power would give others power. The more of us there were, the faster it would happen. Dreamer said that everyone will be born with it, one day. Dreamer said that day was a long time away, though."

The third was equally simple.

It was also the most horrifying.

'What was it that you were fighting?'

A child of two cannot truly appreciate the horror.

Relayed from the child, however...

Well, in a way, it is even more horrifying. A child's description of the Reapers, and what they do... It is simplistic.

Somebody older, hearing it, would fill in the gaps with their own imaginings. A more personal type of horror, that.

"Dreamy said it was a bad thing. Dreamy said it lived only to hurt others. Dreamy said that they don't hurt people because they want to, though. Dreamy says they don't have a choice. They have to hurt others, and then they have to take the people they hurt and make them into more bad things. They're scary, and Dreamy said there's a lot of them, but Dreamy has made a lot of them go away so they won't hurt others anymore."

Howard frowns at his crayon. "How do you make people into something else, though? Dreamy said I'd understand when I was older, but you can tell me, right? Dad?"

Michael, pallid, smiles at his son. "I don't think I quite understand it myself."

"You're scared?" Howard's head tilted to the side. "Dreamy said they were scary, but to you, too?" He frowns, shaking his head. "Don't be scared. Dreamy promised that Dreamy would keep us safe from them. Dreamy always keeps promises."

And with a single conversation, the world learns that it will not always like the things it learns.

The cosmos is not safe, and there are things out to get them.

August 3: A quiet panic sweeps the world in the wake of the video. Theories regarding the Dreamer's enemy appear from all walks of life. The general consensus is that the enemy is a part of an aggressive homogenizing swarm, though other suggestions remain.

Regardless, public demands, combined with the knowledge that there are hostile forces outside of Earth that would not hesitate to destroy them, leads to many nations beginning to engage in talks about the problem.

Over the course of the next few years, most nations would place much more funding in space agencies as a direct result.

The simple fact of the matter, however, is that there isn't much Humanity can do about the problem.

Not yet.

There's no kick in the ass quite like the realization that you are not, in fact, the best thing since sliced bread. It can be an incredible motivator, if used correctly.

The idea that there were existentially hostile forces out in the universe that were more powerful and more numerous than them was not an idea that most species could stand. Humanity, of course, was included in that number. Us versus Them, with one dying and the other living...

These periods of time tend to lead to a lot of development. Technological, industrial, cultural... Not always positive, yes.

Well, regardless, the point was simple.

Humanity now knew that, if it wanted to survive in a hostile cosmos, it needed to be more. More people, more industry, more technology, more, more, more...

The choice is simple. Stand down and die, or rise up and fight.

Not a difficult choice at all.

212.5 (Snapshots)

Demark: So do we live in a science fiction universe or a cosmic horror one?

MaliceInWanderland: Obviously cosmic horror. Angry black cosmic squid thing should have made that obvious.

Delimiter: C'mon, guys, this is obviously a Shonen/Seinen. A weird glowing alien thing fought a dark, evil, red alien squid thing, got knocked into a coma doing so, crashed on our planet, and then Humans started to get weird powers. Glowy alien becomes an object of study/reverence, tells Humans that there are more dangerous bad squid things out in the universe, and we now have to deal with that with our new weird abilities.

Sally: I think it's a romance.

"Let us follow the Dreamer's example! It gave itself in order to protect us! We must be worthy of it!

Show your kindness! Help those who need it! Show the world that the Dreamer chose correctly!"

\- Excerpt from a sermon of the unofficial Church of the Dreamer

"FUCK CUTTLEFISH! I KNEW THOSE LITTLE BASTARDS WERE EVIL! THEIR BIG BASTARD COUSINS ARE TRYING TO KILL US, SO WE SHOULD KILL THEM FIRST! DO YOU HEAR ME?!

Wait, what are you doing with thaAAAGH-"

\- Last words of self-proclaimed 'Head Priest of the Church for the Destruction of Cuttlefish, right before being tased and arrested for disturbing public peace.

"You idiot sleepers, you're going to get us all killed! The Dreamer is an abomination! We should kill it while we have the chance!

Wake up, sheep!"

\- Rhetoric from a man claiming to be a part of an anti-Dreamer group known as the 'Awoken', later arrested for attempted acts of domestic terrorism.

"So who do you think would win in a fight between the Dreamer and Superman?"

\- First post in a thirty page long shitstorm.

"Oh god not again."

\- Second post in a thirty page long shitstorm.

"[A 'what would win' meme with two pictures. The left one is a stylized representation of a human brain, with many equations floating around it, captioned as 'the entirety of Human knowledge on physics, chemistry, and other sciences, discovered over thousands of years of research'. The right one is an image of the Dreamer, captioned 'Something glowy thing showing up on a tuesday'.']

[A gif of the Dreamer, with a trollface pasted on it, dodging shots from the aggressor, which has a rageface pasted on it.]

[A gif of the Dreamer fighting the aggressor, except the aggressor's beams have been edited to show 'my responsibilities', while the Dreamer has the word 'Me' floating above it.]

[A video showing the entirety of the Dreamer's and the Aggressor's visible fight, except it has had laser noises from various sci-fi included.]

[A video of the entire time the Aggressor chased the Dreamer, with Yakety Sax playing in the background and slowly getting louder as they get closer to Earth.]

With the discovery of alien life comes alien memes."

\- Blog post, dated two days after the Dreamer and the Aggressor first appeared.

"[A video of a man smiling while sitting at a table, while objects, and two identical children, float around him chaotically. The children are saying 'dad' repeatedly.]

This is fine."

\- Single father of two ESPers.

"There are stories of creatures beyond Human comprehension, for whom contact with would change Humanity forever. One shudders to imagine the sheer havoc that such a creature could wreak, what power it possesses, and what it could do merely by accident.

It is quite fortunate that the Dreamer seems to like us, don't you think?"

\- Excerpt from a magazine article, The End of the World as we know it

213

2023:

October 12: A group of six ESPers attempt to talk to the Dreamer while remaining awake. All of them fail.

The attempt, however, reveals that the crystal structure of the Dreamer reacts to psychic energy. This makes psychic energy the only known thing in the existence that can affect the crystal at all.

Debates immediately begin to rage about what to do with this information, as attempting to interfere with the structure might cause the Dreamer to react negatively, debates which are ended three hours later after an ESPer wakes up from an afternoon nap, and tells their parents that they'd talked with the Dreamer, who told him that the Dreamer wouldn't particularly care if they took a few pieces of the crystal from it.

October 13: A group of ten ESPers attempts to remove a fragment of the crystal. Two hours of floundering later, one of them finally stumbles upon the method of reliably interacting with the crystal, and manages to sever a thirty-three centimeter long piece of it from the main mass. The missing fragment regrows over the course of eight seconds.

After sharing the method, each ESPer breaks of their own pieces, all of which regrow shortly. After asking if they keep them, seven of the ESPers break off a second piece, and keep the first.

October 15: Days of intense study reveal several interesting things.

First: The apparent immutability the Dreamer crystal demonstrates does not, in fact, apply to the smaller fragments. This leads scientists to theorize that the complete inability affect it previously was in fact the result of a defence mechanism of some sort.

Second: The crystals generate physical reactions in response to the presence of psychic energy. When exposed to ambient psychic, they vibrate. The more energy they are exposed to, the more intensely they do so. Regardless, it still occurs at a level far below Human ability to notice.

This property would directly lead to the creation of the first psychic energy detector and measurement devices, as the vibration is capable of being detected by precise equipment.

Third: The crystals are capable of causing a number of anomalous effects, and they also demonstrate a number of anomalous properties. When given to ESPers who are told to play with it, they have been shown to be capable of emitting electromagnetic energy, distorting gravity, generate more crystalline matter apparently from nothing, and, in one notable case, create glowing material that bares extreme resemblance to the Dreamer's previous form.

Subsequent analysis of the third and fourth reveal that the third is not actually the same type of crystal as the fragments, while the fourth, after being removed from the fragment, loses its glow and becomes a mass of completely normal silicon.

The ESPer who produced that result comments that it felt like it was full of psychic energy, but then it was removed and became empty, so it stopped being strange.

October 19: After nearly a week of continuous study, scientists finally feel confident enough to say that the crystal probably shouldn't actually exist. According to the researchers: 'On a molecular level, this stuff just looks like a bunch of photons bound together by what is probably just more psychic bullshit'.

November 21: An ESPer manages to make their crystal self replicate after a month of fiddling with it. The method is quickly shared, and extraction of fragments from the Dreamer is subsequently stopped.

With this, scientists also conclude that the crystals actually function as some form of amplifier for normal psychic abilities, and their apparent limits, therefore, are related more to the skill of the psychic who's using them rather than anything else. This theory is confirmed by the Dreamer, two days afterwards.

2024:

January 27: First birth of an ESPer more than one hundred and fifty kilometers away from the Dreamer crystal. In Brisbane, the average percentage of the population being born as ESPers reaches 7%.

February: An attempt to map and measure the psychic energy released by the Dreamer sees the mass deployment of psychic energy detectors in Brisbane and surrounding area.

This leads to the subsequent discovery that psychic energy can, and does, concentrate in certain areas. According to measurements, psychic energy within one hundred meters of the Dreamer is over forty times denser than psychic energy one hundred and fifty kilometers away.

According to observations, density appears to have no appreciable effect on the psychic strength of ESPers born within the field. In fact, all ESPers are observed to be born with a measure of psychic power within approximately 3.4% of each other. Psychic power, however, grows with time and training.

Attempts to measure the power of the Dreamer itself fail; Psy-crystal, when placed into contact with the Dreamer, simply stops vibrating. The sheer amount of ambient energy it releases, however, hints at the true depths of its capacity, as the ambient energy released by ESPers can be thousands of times lower than their actual ability.

April: First successful terrorist strike on the Dreamer. A man, notable for being a part of a heavily Anti-Dreamer group known as the Awoken, crashes a plane on the Dreamer Crystal. No harm is done, as the plane simply stopped upon coming into contact with the Dreamer Crystal, both the occupants and plane completely unharmed.

It takes four hours to remove the plane safely, as it remained at an almost 45% degree angle from where it had touched the Dreamer Crystal, defying gravity, inertia, and force easily.

According to one witness: "It was like watching the damned loony tunes. Plane's coming in, hits the thing, and then just stops. I think the crane they removed it with scratched it up more than the impact. Absolutely hilarious."

The man is arrested in the aftermath.

September: An attempt to steal a fragment of psy-crystal succeeds, leading to the arrest of three individuals for breaking and entering, and the escape of the fourth. Subsequent investigations into the group reveal connections with multiple anti-Dreamer groups. A manhunt starts for the final member of the group, identified as Evangeline Harper.

She is located only a few hours later, when she drives a car through a barricade surrounding the Dreamer and subsequently crashes into it. Guards immediately attempt to arrest her, though this is complicated when she reveals an IED containing the stolen psy-crystal fragment. When more police and guards arrive, she panics, and detonates the device by accident, severely injuring herself and eight others.

All are quickly taken to the hospital.

214

A tricky part in guiding a civilization is moderation.

Well, to be more specific; moderation is easy. Teaching moderation is more difficult.

I had, by the simple action of not restraining my power, altered the course of Humanity, and gifted them with power of their own. Through letting them acquire photon-crystal, I had given them the means to enhance both their powers, and themselves.

I had, for all intents and purposes, given them access to some of the greatest tools in my arsenal.

And while they couldn't wield it with anything even approaching the ease with I did so, while they possessed a capacity that may as well not have existed next to my own-

The fact remained.

I was responsible for that.

Giving them such a gift, while not making sure they had the restraint to make proper use of it: That was the Masari's mistake, one I did not intend to repeat.

I didn't want Humanity to go out into the galaxy and conquer everything just because they could, or because they lusted for power, or resources, or whatever else.

I did not want another Hierarchy.

It is easier than it might seem, thanks to the specifics of the situation. Continuous exposure to my power has lead to continuous development of the abilities of the ESPers. The two most developed abilities are simple; telepathy and empathy.

As young as they are, they were constantly reaching out to each other, and those around them. Humanity as whole have already noticed; the children pick up new behaviours startling quickly, and they are very sensitive to the emotions of those around them. To the parents, it was a mixed blessing. An unexpected surge of emotion can upset the ESPers, but they are also easily calmed down when they pick up on the parent's own calm.

When they connect with each other, though... Then it reaches another level entirely. A group of ESPers can have entire conversations without saying even a word. Their ability to cooperate extends dramatically, as they instinctively send and receive information on what the other is doing.

There were lots of ESPers in Brisbane. So many, in fact, with their telepathic abilities overlapping and amplifying upon each other, that a primitive psychic network had emerged. Small, insignificant, and almost worthless at the moment, but in time...

Well.

It would grow. As would they.

All that considered?

I did not interfere very much. I typically did not need to. Even when I did, it was usually just to avert a bigger problem in the future, mostly through subtle methods like a traffic delay.

This was the first time I would be acting in an overt manner. One that would be noticed by Humanity.

I had no part in setting up the events that led to this, I'll note.

Save, perhaps, letting it happen in the first place, where I otherwise might not have.

Well, regardless, I let it happen. Nine people found themselves with fragments of photon-crystal embedded in their bodies. One was going to be classified as a terrorist. The other eight were a mix of guards, police, and a scientist who happened to be on night shift.

Why let it happen?

Presentation, and perception, were important.

And it was time that Humanity got some more concrete answers than what five year old children could relay.

So I let it happen. And I waited; until an explosion sent fragments into all eight, until all eight had fallen unconscious, their minds in a similar state, and the shards inside their bodies filled to the brim with my own psychic energy.

And then:

I reached out.

I pulled.

And eight people opened their eyes to find themselves within a dream.

His eyes opened.

And-

Everything was weird. An endless blue sea stretched below him, his clothes hanging loose without the pull of gravity.

He was Michael Evens. Security guard to the Dreamer's Bed.

And only a moment ago-

He jerked, hand rushing to his chest. Where there should have been a blinding pain, and chunks of metal and crystal, there was simple cloth.

"What?"

"Michael?" A voice asked. Familiar enough that he placed it right away. He turned his head, and saw the person who had spoken.

"Tom..." He breathed a sigh of relief. A fellow guard. A good friend. "Where-"

"Hi!" A face suddenly stuck itself in front of him, making him recoil with a shout of surprise.

It was-

It was a child. A giggling, upside down child, with glowing eyes.

ESPer.

"Marcus..." Another voice spoke. Michael turned his head as best he could, spotting a man wearing a heavy jacket. Han Grant, scientist.

"Hello, Mister G!" The ESPer called, turning easily.

"Why are you upside down?" Han asked, frowning.

"I'm not upside down." The child smiled.

Han looked up. So did Michael. He saw ground. Trees and grass. And several other ESPer children.

He looked down. The endless blue sea was, in fact, an endless blue sky.

Which meant he was in the air.

"SHI-" He flailed his arms, gravity only now deciding to make itself known. Other shouts, and laughter, followed him.

The ground came closer with alarming speed, and he closed his eyes, waiting for impact.

He felt-

He felt a thump. The sensation of hitting something, but-

There was no pain.

Somehow.

After a moment, he opened his eyes. Clear blue stared back, wonderfully solid ground beneath him.

The laughter continued. He sat up, and looked towards it.

The ESPers. Some giggling, some outright laughing.

He looked around. The world seemed so normal, except it clearly wasn't.

He and Han weren't the only adults present. There were six others, for a total of eight. He recognized them all- everybody here had been involved in the mess with that crazy woman with a bomb.

Well, except the children of course, but-

"What is happening?"

"'Dunno." Marcus shrugged. "There's never been this many people in here, before. Never any adults, either."

"'In here'?" Han questioned. "Marcus, is this place what I think it is?"

"Yes." A new voice rang. Deep, but also soft, and resonating oddly, but not unpleasant altogether.

He turned, slowly.

The voice's owner was... what he had expected.

Smaller than he would have thought, but still three or four times taller than him. Its form was beautiful, in a hauntingly alien way; the core of its body was long and thin, though it buldged slightly at the top, middle, and bottom. Two 'arms' hung from the top, connected alongside two pairs of 'wings', and two more pairs of long 'streamers'. The entire body glowed in a soft blue colour, the colour changing only slightly over different parts of the body, enough to make it distinguishable, at least.

There was nobody who wouldn't be able to recognize this being.

The Dreamer.

215

And so...

The world learned.

All of them woke up the next day, unharmed. All of them woke up simultaneously, with the shards of psy-crystal ejected from their bodies, inert.

That alone was clue enough that something strange had been going on. When the ESPer children finally got around to telling the adults what happened, well...

The information spread quickly. All of a sudden, there were eight adults who had spoken to the Dreamer.

Everybody wanted to know what had been said.

The eight who I had spoken to were... quite willing to tell, too, on account of the content.

Specifically?

I told them about the Reapers.

In all the gory details.

And in turn, they told the world. Raw, unfiltered, not echoed through a child.

The world learned several things that day.

First, it learned that the Reapers were more numerous than ever imagined; trillions strong, each one a towering mass of murderous metal.

Second, it learned the details on how they were created, each one a horrific mutilation of hundreds of thousands to millions.

Third, it learned the fate of those that sought to follow them; becoming a Husk, twisted, slowly, by perverse cybernetics into something cruel. None were spared forever, only temporarily.

Fourth, it learned of Indoctrination, the Reaper's subtle weapon against civilizations, to take people and twist the mind into a husk, instead of the body.

Fifth, it learned that Humanity was already a target. Nothing would change that; in time, the Reapers would come for them, too.

Sixth, it learned that the Dreamer had declared them an enemy. An anathema, something that could not be allowed to survive, for the good of all life itself.

Seventh, it learned that these beings were called 'Harvesters'.

Eighth, it learned that there was approximately one hundred and fifty to two hundred years before the Reapers arrived in force.

Ninth, it learned that the Dreamer had no intention of allowing Humanity to die.

Tenth, it learned that that power they were starting to inherit was a power forbidden to the Reapers. They did not, and could not, possess it.

Eleventh, and last, it learned that survival, and, indeed, victory, was entirely possible- so long as Humanity was willing to work together for it.

I'll make a note here; telling them all this was as much a way to light a fire under Humanity's collective ass as it was to get them some real answers.

I'll also note that it was more effective than even I had intended.

2024:

Late April: All individuals who were harmed during the terrorist attack heal over the course of three hours, surprising medical personnel, wounds reknitting and crystal shards pushing their way out of their bodies, leaving them unharmed. The sole exception is Evangeline Harper, who heals just enough to no longer be in a life-threatening condition.

At the fourth hour, all individuals wake up, again excepting Evangeline Harper.

The news breaks in less than ten minutes, and the public is very shortly made aware of what happened, what had been said, and who told it to them. ESPer confirmation comes later, but it comes all the same.

Public response, as one may expect, is panicked. It is the first true confirmation of what had, until then, only been speculated or told through the mouths of children.

Early May: Growing public and private demand leads to a UN meeting on how best to deal with the Harvester threat. Talks will take several more months, and agreements several more years, but it will all eventually culminate in the creation of a supranational group backed by almost every nation on the planet.

The group will become known as 'The Assembly'. Its actual name is significantly longer and far less catchy.

The group's mandate is to ensure the continued survival of Humanity against all threats that may come.

The Assembly will subsequently scout and recruit many of Humanity's best and brightest, bringing in scientists, engineers, and more from all walks of life.

October: After several months of a slow integration, NASA is assimilated into the Assembly, forming the core of its aerospace arm. With access to a far greater budget, the pace that rocketry and all assorted technology is developed quickens dramatically.

Over the next several years, several more prominent space agencies are subsumed into the Assembly.

2025:

March: A fusion reactor prototype exceeds expectations and returns a considerable energy profit. The Assembly recruits the designers and sets them on improving the prototype for general use. The project goes forward under the name of 'Project Prometheus'.

November: First confirmed teleportation incident by an ESPer. At six years and four months old, Marie Holl becomes the first Human to ever teleport.

She cannot repeat the act, to her dismay and her parents' relief.

2026:

The Assembly's Space Arm announces plans for the construction of an orbital space station. It is named 'Stepping Point'.

The Stepping Point is intended to sit at the Earth-Moon Lagrange 1 point, where it will serve as a gateway to colonising the Moon.

2027:

After two years of work and development, Project Prometheus bears fruit, and successfully develops a commercially viable fusion reactor, with an expected output that far surpasses any concurrent fission reactor.

Construction of a reactor begins shortly, a project which is expected to complete by 2030.

2028:

First ESPer more than five hundred kilometers away from Brisbane is born.

In Brisbane, ESPer births reaches as high as 10% of all babies.

2030:

World's first commercial fusion reactor comes online. Its yearly output will supply nearly a fifteenth of China's entire energy needs.

Many additional power plants are subsequently planned. Analysts state that the world could enjoy cheap, extensive energy as shortly as 2040, if more power plants are constructed.

2031:

Breakthroughs in robotics leads to semi-autonomous, reliable, and cheap machines. Automation beings to extend dramatically.

First confirmed healing event. An ESPer is able to cause a regenerative effect on a wounded man, healing cuts, removing bruises, and restoring lost blood.

The ability rapidly spreads as the ESPer teaches as many as he can.

2032:

First confirmed astral projection event. The ESPer is able to successfully replicate the ability.

Later study shows that the ESPer's body falls into a coma-like state, with only minimal and automatic brain activity occurring while the Esper is projecting. It raises new questions on the nature of consciousness.

Two weeks later, an ESPer sleeps in class while he projects, keeping notes and participating regardless. He remarks that he has never felt so well-rested, earning the burning jealousy of college students everywhere.

2033:

Growing automation leads to a number of effects in the economy. The Assembly, having seen it coming, launches a number of programs to help those who lost their jobs or livelihood, lessening the impact.

2035:

The Stepping Point finishes construction. Larger, somewhat spindly, and mostly self-sufficient, the station is set to provide the important staging area for future colonisation efforts.

2037:

First ESPer more than one thousand kilometers away from Brisbane is born. ESPer birth rates are now reaching 18%.

2039:

First ESPer astronaut enters space. Her abilities make her a much loved member of the team very quickly.

2040:

Breakthroughs in genetic therapy and genetic engineering lead to treatments that can eliminate the vast majority of cancers, and shortly thereafter, a significant number of other diseases. The

average health of Humanity skyrockets over the course of the next few years.

2044:

First ESPer born to an ESPer parent. The baby does not deviate significantly from the norm.

2046:

First phase of Lunar Colonisation completes, with ground-side power, construction, hydroponics, and mining now active. The base supports a population of 52, and is fully self-sufficient. Phase two will expand the base to 300 active personnel.

2047:

First ESPer, with both parents being normal humans, more than two thousand kilometers away from Brisbane is born. ESPer birth percentages now approach 35%.

2049:

Harvester forces attack the Dreamer.

216

I had never intended to keep the Dreamer laying around. It was useful, in the beginning and as a guide, but I didn't want to keep it around forever.

I had not intended to get rid of it so early, however. The original plan had called for it to be taken out in 2062, but then...

Well, divergences. The power to see the future... Or, rather, the power to see the potential futures, and bring them forth. That was the key of it; potential.

The future that had come about was one where Humanity had gotten everything together faster than I had expected. I knew it would happen, but things kept going well, kept coming together in just the right way, even when I wasn't acting.

I had nothing to do with the fusion reactor that led to Project Prometheus. It was an accident that it had returned such an investment of energy.

An accident that had knocked off eight months on Project Prometheus developing. An accident that had taken two years off of commercially viable fusion reactors.

It was among the better possible futures that could have come to pass. Among the best, in truth, with only a handful that could have resulted in a better result. The future that I had expected to happen, the more common one, was one without that accident.

The Assembly being formed in so short a time? Also among the best.

It was... consistent. Things were just going Humanity's way. Luck here, decisions there.

I knew why it was happening. A simple thing.

The psychic network. It was larger now, having grown both in strength and in complexity from the days when it had only just begun forming. Even so, ESPers were only barely aware of it, but that would change, in time.

The point was; that network...

Hell of a thing, really. Originally, it linked only the ESPers, only those that contributed to it, but now? Now, it could resonate with more than those ESPers. Now, it resonated, on a very, very primal level, with all of Humanity.

To be a psychic is to have the ability to impose one's will upon the universe. The psychic network is not at that level, but it could reflect desires, goals.

In recent years, Humanity had desired progress, growth, cooperation. The network had reflected this. Hence?

The universe reflected this.

The futures that came to be where the ones where progress, growth, and cooperation would be brought about.

These formative years... are going to define them for the rest of their existence. At the core of this network, there was those ideals. Progress, growth, cooperation. There would be deviants, yes, and it was far from omnipotent, yes, but it was truth regardless.

It would set itself as the foundation, once the network reached maturation. Once Humanity became truly aware of it, of just how interconnected they now were, once Humanity was mostly psychic...

That will be the day.

Well, I digress.

It was 2049. It was 13 years earlier than intended, but now?

Now it was time for the final stage of the plan.

Step one; borrow some Reapers.

Easy enough. I take them straight from the rest of the armada, modifying memories as I do. To the other Reapers, this group that vanishes had never been there to begin with; they were a task force dedicated to hunting down the Dreamer.

The story is simple.

Sovereign vanishes. The task force attempts to find him. They discover its last known location.

They go.

They find an active Mass Relay. They pass through. They see the system; and on the third planet, they see a mass of crystal two kilometers wide. Unsecured data transmissions reveal the past, and they know, then, that this is the enemy.

They launch their attack. A massive alpha strike, an attempt to end it quickly, before the Dreamer could react. They leap into FTL, firing their beams near simultaneously when they leave it. Enhanced by the potent mass lightening fields, the particle beams are travelling at velocities that would see them crack continents.

I had taken a small amount of Reapers, but small is relative. There are hundreds of billions of Reapers. The force that I have taken is a million strong.

Each and every single one of them has fired at the Dreamer, concentrating enough energy upon a single target that, if it had hit, it would have cracked the mantle of the planet like an egg, rendering the world uninhabitable in short order.

Needless to say, it doesn't hit.

A shield snaps in place the scarcest moment before the Reapers arrive. It stretches across the skies, wrapping the planet in a blue shell of protection. When the particle beams hit, these shields spark so brightly that night turns to day as a second sun appears in the sky; the energy release contained as a wave ripples across the shield, heading around the planet.

One moment, it was calm and peaceful. The next, everything goes crazy. A faint blue light permeates the atmosphere, night turns to day, psychic energy detectors across the planet go wild, and every single ESPer on the planet simply, and very suddenly, stops.

They have no trouble feeling as the Dreamer rouses itself, slipping from sleep into waking. The weight of its mind settles like a comforting blanket, enough that even those who aren't sensitive to psychic abilities can feel it on some level or another.

All too quickly, they start again. I can feel the panic that now begins to drive them. They're smart enough to know why the Dreamer would do this. Those who are closer reach out, a multitude of voices calling for the Dreamer.

The older ones come shortly, teleporting in.

"Dreamer!" They say. "Who/Is it/What happened/Why?"

"The Harvesters." I respond. An image drifts across; a million Reapers, above this world. They recoil, as I expect them to. "Worry not. No harm will come to you." I assure them.

"But-" They say. "You're still hurt/You haven't healed/Your recovery isn't complete."

"True." I say. "But I'll not let them harm you."

They protest, but it's too late. With not another word, the Dreamer leaves to fight.

217

"Dreamer!" He shouts, both physically and mentally, but the Dreamer is already gone. Physically, that is; the massive crystal structure vanishing with the signature of teleportation.

He was Marcus. ESPer, among the oldest.

He had lived for thirty years with the Dreamer's quiet and sleeping presence nearby. Today was the first time he had ever known what it was like for things to not be that way.

He didn't like it.

He stared at the sky, rippling waves of blue pulsing across it. The Dreamer's power hung heavy in the air, every breath charged with energy. It was warm, like a blanket.

"Dreamer..." He murmured.

The Dreamer was awake. Something that seemed like a dream itself, ironically, but the truth. It would have been a good thing, except...

Except it was too early. The Dreamer had not yet healed.

He could feel it, underneath the calm consideration of the Dreamer's mind. Pain. Something within was hurting.

Why did the Harvesters have to come now? Why not later? After the Dreamer had healed, after Humanity had grown and been able to offer up some ability to help-

But they couldn't. Nobody had that kind of power. All of them together would only-

All of them together.

No one person had that kind of power, but they weren't alone, were they?

He reaches out, mentally, to those around him. The other ESPers take note quickly, confused, but confusion ends when he passes the thought along.

They weren't alone. They had each other.

The others join him, minds connecting and synchronising. They reach further, quickly drawing in more and more.

They feel the mind of a child. Too young, they decide, and pass over.

Their group runs into another group. He wasn't the only one who had the idea. The two groups merge. The range expands. They find more groups, and more individuals.

Every ESPer over ten in the city joins, and not long afterwards, every ESPer over twelve on the planet.

It is... not as hard as they thought it would be. This cohesion comes so easily, in fact, that they're suddenly not sure that this isn't how it was meant to be in the first place.

They put that aside, for the moment, and reach upwards, out, pooling mind and power together. The Dreamer's shield is magnificent in its scale and its power, but it does not stop them at all. They touch the minds of ESPers in orbit, and they join the group.

They reach towards the moon. The distance is beyond anything ever attempted. Together, their minds cross the gap with barely an afterthought.

There are five ESPers on the Moon. When they join, more than half of the ESPers in existence are working together. Those that aren't are those too young to do so.

The Dreamer is closer than the moon. They reach. They see.

The Dreamer is massive. Larger than before, they realize. It hangs in space like some ancient and beautiful god, emanating power beyond anything they had ever felt.

Power proven in the fact that none of the million Harvesters around it were capable of harming it. Black forms fired red beams, lancing strikes aimed straight at the Dreamer's heart, and not a single one hit. The beams met a shield, and simply stopped.

But, it wasn't fighting back. They could feel its power, carefully constrained so that it wasn't touching the Harvesters themselves.

Why?

They reach out to the Dreamer. They can feel that it is aware of them. It has been watching them while they worked together.

"We can help." They say,

The Dreamer's attention focuses, for a brief moment, on one Harvester in particular. They follow, recognizing the cue. They reach out, touch the Harvester's mind-

And recoil, shivering in disgust and phantom pain.

The Dreamer had told some of them, once, what a Harvester was. It had said that a Harvester was a machine built out of people, with hundreds of thousands to millions of minds trapped within, harrowed and agonized. They knew this, but until they had touched the Harvester's mind, they had not truly understood this.

The reality of it was worse than any imagination.

"Tormented things." The Dreamer agrees. "But they have made a mistake. This is all of them who are awake."

"How is that a mistake?" They ask.

"They have no Vanguard. They will not awaken early." The Dreamer considers, and comes to a decision. "An opportunity that must be taken."

The Dreamer, gently, pushes them aside. Its power stretches across space.

Too late, they realize what it intends to do.

The Dreamer's power touches the Harvesters. They shudder, shiver, minds bending underneath it.

Crystal sprouts over their forms, covering the ominous black. The Dreamer acts, pulling the minds out and into itself, the crystals shattering as it does so. The minds themselves almost shatter, much like the crystals, but then the Dreamer interjects-

And it suffers in their place. Pain lances through it like a physical force, its form rippling before vanishing, disintegrating like dust in the wind. What's left behind is a massive bipyramid crystal, cracks running along its form.

The psy-crystal, they realize. Now they understand where that power was coming from. Humans could use them to enhance their powers, but the Dreamer had always surpassed them. What could it do with such a large mass?

Not save itself, apparently. The cracks spread, webbing and cracking.

There must be something they could do.

"No." The Dreamer speaks. "This is not a wound easily mended."

"There must be some way-"

"If you were older." The Dreamer says. "More numerous, and more experienced, then; this would be a wound that could be healed. But, you are not. You are young, still. You cannot help, not this time."

The Dreamer is apologetic. The words are harsh, but the truth. They don't like it regardless.

The Dreamer sighs. Its mind strums lightly over theirs, and then-

The world shifts.

A lush expanse, filled with trees, and pools, and an endless blue sky awaits them. They are all here, now. They look and see their own bodies.

It is familiar; the Dream.

"I had hoped it would not come to this." The Dreamer speaks. "But needs must. There is much to say, and precious little time to say it.

218

"Why?" They ask. "You could have destroyed them with no harm to yourself. Why... do that?"

"I do not destroy them, because they can still be helped." The Dreamer explains.

"How?!" They ask, because they have felt the mind of a Harvester, the millions of tortured and broken minds within, awkwardly forced into shape, and they don't understand how a violation like that can be fixed. "How can it be done?!"

The Dreamer replies not with words, but with image and memory. They see-

They see the Dreamer. Its smaller form. It leads a harvester on a chase, drawing it into a pattern. It strikes, does damage. The Harvester releases its drones, and the Dreamer destroys them quickly. Several more strikes prevent the Harvester from escaping, prevent it from calling help. The Dreamer takes the Harvester somewhere it won't be found.

Then, the Dreamer sets to work, it reaches into the core of the Harvester, stripping away its metallic shell, revealing the distorted mechanical mirror of the species it was made from it. The Dreamer binds it. The Dreamer reaches into its processors, and subborns them. The Dreamer copies everything as it examines the overarching consciousness of the Harvester, and then strikes the code and the core. The consciousness shatters again into tens of millions of minds, tortured and broken, but singular again.

The Dreamer takes them carefully, lifting them from the Harvester's corpse. They are so fragile...

The lightest touch can shatter them all the more, and to the Dreamer, this is not something it is willing to risk.

It attends to each, reaching into them and looking through them. It sees the crude manipulation, and removes it. The broken memories are realigned, the mind pieced back together.

The Dreamer sees pain, and takes it away.

Time, then, does the rest. They come back, slowly. The Dreamer consoles them, helps them heal.

"Carefully." The Dreamer says, at the end of it. "And with patience."

"Then why-" They already know, they realize. The minds are fragile.

"Too much power," The Dreamer confirms. "And they collapse."

They understand, now. Why the Dreamer hadn't attacked. Why it had taken such a small form, before.

"I wish to spare them their pain." The Dreamer says. "Not to destroy them. The Harvesters are Anathema, but each one carries minds that are not. Quite the conundrum. I can do it slowly, and spare myself pain, but that would have risked the rest of them being awoken. More lives would have been lost. Or, I can do it quickly, at the cost of taking the pain so that they do not break completely."

"And you chose the latter, this time." They say.

"Yes." The Dreamer confirms. "This is my choice. I prefer to help life than to bring death. The latter is sometimes necessary, but not in this case. In hunting me, they trapped themselves."

"You said they wouldn't awaken early."

"The cycles of the Harvesters is precipitated by the Vanguard." The Dreamer reveals. "A Harvester, left awake while the others sleep. The Vanguard watches the galaxy, observing the species who develop within. Should they develop faster than expected, the Vanguard awakens the Harvesters, and the cycle starts early. When I came to this galaxy, I found the Vanguard. Before I realized its nature, it awoke the Harvesters, who assigned this force to destroy me." The Dreamer laughed. "They did not succeed. I was the hunter. I cut their numbers in half, one by one. The force today was all that remained."

"They have no Vanguard." They realize.

The Dreamer agrees. "And opportunity that must be taken. It is too important not to. The galaxy can develop as much as it wants to, and there will be no reprisal until the Harvesters awaken. Time enough, perhaps, to develop enough to fight back."

The Dreamer was excited. But that excitement faded shortly, calm consideration falling in its place. "It would be difficult, but possible. I took that chance, regardless of the costs."

"You're going to die." They murmur, because they can feel the pain continuing to grow, the Dreamer continuing to crack. It isn't stopping, not even in the healing Dream. "It's about to kill you."

The Dreamer laughs, its amusement echoing across the entirety of them. "No other time has your youth been so obvious. You have come far in these thirty years, but not far enough. You still do not realize that death is not an end." The Dreamer's amusement ceased to radiate, replaced with a contentedness. "Death is a delay. Transient, just as life is."

"You mean-" Hope sparks.

"I will die." The Dreamer spoke. "And eventually, I will live again. The question, merely, is when."

They begin to smile.

"But it will not be as soon as you hope."

The smiles falter.

The Dreamer consider them, a vague regret hanging in the air. "It is unlikely, I think, to come before the Harvesters awaken."

"Then..."

"I will not be there to see your growth." The Dreamer murmured. "A shame, truly. I am sure it will be grand."

The regret grows.

"How can you be so confident?" They ask.

"Your kind has been alone for tens of thousands of years." The Dreamer notes. "And you came far. The three decades I spent on your world are little, in comparison. Still, in that time, I have seen many aspects of your kind. I have confidence in you. You should have confidence in yourselves."

The world shudders. The Dreamer is all too close to dying.

"Still," The Dreamer continues regardless. "That does not mean that I cannot help. The burden you carry is one that can be lightened." Its mind presses along theirs. The Dreamer thinks, and remembers, and gives them four things.

A list, upon which are a series of locations. There are important things in these places, and Humanity may find them useful.

A date, and with it, the knowledge that this is when the Harvesters will awaken.

A gift, through which they may gain new power.

And the Dream, so that they may always have a place to rest.

The Dreamer pulls back, wavering softly, like a mirage. It is barely holding together, now.

It still has one last thing to give, but giving it will kill the Dreamer. They can sense this. Before it gives, the Dreamer has something to say.

"I have... one single piece of advice." The Dreamer says, haltingly. "Be kind, but not meek."

The Dreamer vanishes. They leave the Dream immediately, still linked, only to see...

The Dreamer's crystal is shining like a second star, psychic energy pouring out of it. It is power that surpasses even the moments beforehand.

The power reaches its zenith, and reality seems to twist, for a moment, before the power vanishes and the crystal shatters.

They have no idea what the Dreamer had done.

There is laughter, in their ears. The Dreamer is fading, but just before it fades completely... It whispers.

"It's your time now."


	23. Chapter 23: Logs 219-228 WIP

219

Well.

All done.

Thirty years, and now... it's all ready. From this point onwards, it's nothing but waiting.

...

You know, I've spent more time on this then I've spent in every previous universe put together.

And if everything goes as intended, I'm probably going to spend another century here, too.

...

Oh well.

The plan came together beautifully.

That last bit, especially. The last things the Dreamer had given will make it mostly smooth sailing. The list will take them straight to a bunch of important ruins, from which they will be able to gather yet more evidence of the Reapers' activities. That'll be fun when they finally make contact with the Citadel. A whole bunch of pretty solid evidence. It'll also take them to a whole bunch of other places, all important and interesting.

Heh.

The date, for a deadline. Unfortunately, I couldn't take back what I had said beforehand about it being within two centuries, so that was scheduled for 2185.

It's a fairly short timeframe, I admit. Which is why the third and fifth gifts existed.

The third gift was basically just pulling a Mir, I'm not going to lie. The Tatsumiya Mir had given out powers, designed for purpose, to the Fafner pilots so that they may protect it and themselves.

I... had not done exactly that. What I had done was hand out...

What was more or less a seed of potential. Nestled in the heart of the psychic network, it would spread to all connected to it, taking root and growing based on the individual. The result would be a power, unique to one's self.

Or, in less flowery metaphorical terms, I'd made it so everybody would get their own special ability. Most of them probably wouldn't be much to write home about, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if some of them happened to develop some more exotic things like precognition or assimilation.

They probably won't stay unique to the person, considering they were generalist psychics rather than specialists, but if other people wanted to learn something, they're going to have to do it the hard way.

The fifth gift was the real equalizer, regardless. But I'll get to that after I get to the fourth, in the name of doing things in numerical order.

Handing them the Dream was... not really too much of a change, to be honest. I'd tied it, again, to the psychic network, but, really?

The Dream was just a mental world. Nothing really special about it, save perhaps the fact that it was as idyllic as they came, but still...

It was more the sentiment, really.

...

The dead will probably find it more useful than the living. The Dream wasn't that different from a Gordian Crystal, in that particular regard of what it could potentially do with those who have passed.

...

The fifth gift, though.

That... was the big one.

See, there was a small, teeny tiny problem with the whole plan. Namely, Humanity just wasn't that big. Again, I'd said that they'd have maybe two hundred years before the Reapers came, and, again, I couldn't take that back.

Two hundred years is a fairly long time, but in this case, it isn't long enough. Yes, the psychic network would push them further, faster, but the Reapers had been at this game for over a billion years, and there was a lot of them. Like, a lot of them.

Like, trillions of them. Sure, they'd sustained their losses, but they've gained more than they lost, and time... Time adds up.

Humanity had until 2185 to get enough numbers to fight the Reapers. It's 2049, so they've got 136, being generous. The three biggest players in the galaxy, the Asari, Salarians, and Turians, have had about two thousand years, some of the best space in the galaxy, and two galactic wars to encourage them.

See the problem?

Humanity is small enough to be a rounding error in the population of the galaxy. One hundred and thirty six years is not enough time to change that, which means that, somehow, I need to make sure they expand at an incredible rate, do so before the deadline so they can get the Citadel in on it, and not do so in a way that would become problematic after the whole thing is over.

Sounds difficult, doesn't it?

If I wanted to do it without any major detriments to Humanity, I'd have to somehow fit four hundred years of fast development into, like, twenty five years.

So what if I did precisely that?

In one single word, the fifth gift was time.

Let me tell ya; not as easily set up as the others.

I'd mentioned, once, a long time, ago, the first time I'd gotten my hands on the technology, that the Seraphim had once experimented with manipulating time. It formed the basis, in fact, of their ability to defend against exactly that, which was technology that I had acquired.

It had not taken me too long to recover its original form. Much like the Seraphim, I could speed, slow, and stop the flow of time. Also much like the Seraphim, that was an incredibly energy intensive process that scaled up both on the size of the area being affected, and the potency of the effect.

What I wanted was pretty simple. Achieving it...

In the interest of safety and not gravitationally distorting the solar system and condemning Humanity to a cold death, I'd need to wrap a space fifty five astronomical units wide in a time distorting effect, centered on the sun. Pluto's orbit had circularized alongside the destruction of Charon, which was the only reason it was fifty five instead of sixty.

A sphere fifty five astronomical units wide is, in a word:

BIG

Really big.

Fitting four hundred years inside of twenty five years, however, is merely a distortion factor of sixteen. Which is good, because the machine I required to make fifty five fucking astronomical units run sixteen times faster than normal is almost as large as the space itself, and every second generates and consumes the amounts of energy you would normally only find in gamma ray bursts and supernovas.

Humanity, of course, wouldn't see that. The damned thing was out of phase and stealthed to shit precisely so that they would never ever ever notice it. The only thing they would notice was its effects; seven hours, twenty nine minutes, and six seconds after it activated.

The stars would dim.

It would start at a small point in space, and expand rapidly in a circle over the course of sixteen and a bit minutes, until all of them were dim. The stars themselves were just as bright as ever, but time was moving sixteen times faster, and from Humanity's perspective, that would mean that they were receiving sixteen times less light. To anyone on the outside, Sol would appear to suddenly get sixteen times brighter, and it will stay that way for the next twenty five years.

Of course, there were no living creatures within the surrounding twenty five light years, so nobody was going to notice until after it was done.

Of course, it would still be one of the most interesting stellar phenomena the galaxy would ever see.

Interesting, and undeniable.

It'll be very useful for convincing people, that's for sure.

...

You know.

If they needed it.

Well, whatever the case.

Humanity would use this time to expand and develop, rapidly and to an extent that would make it relevant on the galactic stage. Twenty five years, and then...

Well.

All up to them, now.

220

Twenty five years passed in what may as well have been the blink of an eye.

Humanity just kept on trucking along, in their little bubble of development. It was interesting, I'd admit, watching their civilization change and modify itself, the inclusion of psionics fundamentally altering the basic assumptions upon which their lives had been built.

2100 rolling around had just been fascinating.

It wasn't something I hadn't seen before, what with the Masari, and to a lesser extent the Bentusi and a few civilizations in the cosmos of Homeworld, but it was intriguing nonetheless. These kinds of group minds were not something I found particularly often, after all.

The aftermath of it was interesting in its own right. The way that they all connected, came to a decision, followed through... The will of the entire species, brought forth and acted out.

The journey of self-discovery that followed was matched in its importance only by its hilarity. Eighty years they missed the fact that they were interconnected, eighty years the psychic network had gone unnoticed. The embarrassment that had lanced through them in the instant that they realized it existed had left me laughing so hard my avatar had stopped breathing.

The subsequent resolve to hide the fact that it took them that long to notice had been even worse, and the less said about their realization afterwards that the Dreamer had already known, the better.

Their plan to ignore it, and the fact that they had indeed ignored it for the next three hundred years... Well.

I hadn't laughed that loud or that long in a very, very long time. I'll make a point to backhandedly reference that later on. Ought to be funny, I think.

Well, regardless... Afterwards came several months of testing and trialing. Thinking about how to organize themselves, what was the best way to go into the future... The Assembly, of course, won that one, providing the short-term resources necessary to get everything running smoothly. It would ironically do so well in its goal that it would become obsolete itself after a few decades, but hey, that wasn't really a bad thing.

What made it obsolete was, of course, Project Augmentation. The goal of taking their psychic network and appending upon it new functionalities. They had the Dream as an example, and that was all they needed. The first stage, an archive of assimilated items, objects, and data, letting everybody access it with ease, and without the need for somebody else to do more than store it there in the first place. Suddenly, assimilation became much more convenient.

Then came stage two, where they set up was basically the psychic equivalent of the internet. I'm not going to lie, it was well designed, even by my standards. Psychic construction could be quite finicky, but they managed to get it under wraps nice and neatly. Stage three was just them taking the physical internet and transcribing all the data inside into the Psi-net, a simple but lengthy prospect considering the sheer volume of data that they'd produced and stored by then.

Then, they'd realized that their psychic programming could be applied in a different way; applied to psy-crystal, instead of the psychic network.

The result was psy-tech. The automation, finally, truly, of psychic abilities.

It wasn't that great. The Masari would take one look at their work and would probably fling it right out of the nearest window. It was inefficient, needed a source of psychic energy that wasn't itself, had a limited capacity in both power and versatility compared to Humanity itself.

It could have been better. They could have made it not need an outside source of psychic energy. It could have been more powerful, more versatile.

I wasn't going to blame them for it, though. The ways to go about it weren't that obvious. The Masari had the advantage of long experience, while I combined their experience with three different methodologies.

I'd given it eight or nine hundred years before they figured it out. I'd bumped that down to seven hundred, when they figured out that yes, psy-crystal was capable of changing its shape, material properties, and appearance.

That had been a fun discovery. Less than three hours afterwards, and some smartasses had finished up lightsabers.

It had taken less than thirty seconds for someone to point one at their eye and activate it. Five minutes after that, people were playing Phaser Tag, and the Phasers were not set to stun.

Humans gonna do what Humans gonna do, I suppose.

Then again, that's what you get when everybody is immortal and can block pain with ease. If you're going to die repeatedly, you may as well make it a spectacle.

After that, Humanity migrated into space.

This is actually really important to note, by the way. The fact that they did that is going to have an effect on their psychic development as a species, due to the way that their network is set up. They are constantly linked to each other, and by putting intraplanetary distances between themselves, they unintentionally altered their development to favour range over raw power.

As far as things go, it wasn't a bad thing, especially not for them. Through the Psychic Network, Humanity could devote near the entirety of its collective psychic power at any given point, through any given Human. The power of the average Human didn't matter when the entire species was involved.

Fun stuff, that...

There's a whole lot more to go through; the discovery of the Prothean Ruins, the subsequent discovery that the Mass Relay had been built by the Reapers, Humanity throwing SCIENCE at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I'm going to skip most of that on account of the fact that there are more interesting things to talk about.

Things like how Humanity figured out how the Mass Relays worked and promptly put slightly altered versions fucking everywhere. Planet? Mass Relay. Moon? Mass Relay. Moderately interesting patch of asteroids? Mass Relay. Mass Relay? Mass Relay.

Well, they called them Star Rails. I honestly kind of liked the name, though I would have picked Catapult.

There was also the terraforming of Mars and Venus. That was good stuff. Mars had been boringly practical, but Venus...

Venus had been fun. It was a rare day that bombing the crap out of a planet proved to be practical, and Humanity had certainly embraced the sheer violence of it.

Indeed, the only thing that matched the spectacle was how long it took clean it all up. Thirteen years of calming Venus down, slowly altering the atmosphere, lessening volcanic activity, sculpting the landscape into something that wasn't a series of craters...

Fun.

The cleanup of Earth had followed shortly after that, which basically amounted to fixing the damage that Humans had done through industrialization. A noble goal.

Of course, it was here that Humanity first dipped its toes into megastructural engineering. Three Orbital Elevator, with an accompanying Orbital Ring, had been constructed on and around the Earth. It was a piece of engineering that bordered on excessive, considering its size, sheer capabilities, and appearance.

Did it serve any real purpose? No. Humanity sure as shit didn't need them.

Did it look really fucking cool? Yes.

There had been some more stuff; Venus and Mars having their ecosystems altered to include larger, and considerably more fantastic creatures that what they used. Venus got a load of dinosaurs, Mars got Dragons, Wyrms, and Worms. Each were beautiful pieces of bioengineering, showing the true depths of skill that Humanity possessed in the art of biosculpting...

But there was something even better than all of that. Something which caught my attention and held it quite well when the first had been accidentally born, and the rest not-so-accidentally.

The Anima

221

In 2320, Humanity created, mostly by accident, an artificial psychic consciousness. It had barely been sentient, was definitely not sapient, but it was a psychic mind nonetheless.

It hadn't taken Humanity very long to repeat this accident, and then to refine the process, producing more capable consciousnesses as a result. These minds were semi-sapient, with a habit of bonding to other minds, capable of performing any psychic ability that Humanity itself could perform, given time to learn how and the energy to do it with.

Humans named these minds 'Anima'.

If I had not seen the creation of these things from beginning to end, if I had simply stumbled upon them one day, and then come to study them?

I'd probably have ended up thinking of them as 'proto-Mir'.

That was their potential. It was beautiful. These tiny little minds, so weak, but still so capable, had all the potential to grow into something truly...

Magnificent.

It would take time. Thousands of years, being generous, and far more likely to take tens of thousands before they reached the power of Mir, but even so...

They wouldn't become Mir, of course. Too different, in instinct, in desire. A Mir was an overseer, assimilating information, constantly growing, attempting to understand the world around it. That was their focus.

An Anima was a symbiote, at heart. The bonds they formed with other minds were of both the metaphorical and literal kind. They bonded emotionally, psychologically, and psychically.

The dynamic of it was intriguing enough to make me consider new... options.

But I'll get back to that, later.

The next century and a bit after the creation of the Anima was... pretty boring, honestly. Nothing really game-changing, just more of the same. Well, there was the brief trip outside of the time bubble, but that had been discomforting for the Humans who'd left, and so, it didn't last long. The Solar system did get all sorts of planetary graffiti, though, alongside the latest bout of craziness...

Well, whatever. I'll skip to the good part; the time bubble finally collapsing.

A brief moment to take it in, and then... out they went.

Not as fast as they could have gone, I'll note. Their FTL was pretty good, but its development had been stagnated by the circumstances of the time bubble. Namely, it was only one hundred and ten astronomical units in diameter, and the border had a sixteen times multiplier on the edge. An object trying to pass through would run into its own matter, an interaction that had... deleterious effects on the continued existence of the object in question.

Humanity had sidestepped the issues by going to the edge and teleporting to the other side.

So, what did that mean for Humanity's FTL development?

When you get to the point of crossing light years in days, one hundred and ten astronomical units is not that big. At a paltry one light year per day, you can cross that distance in about two and a half minutes. At the twenty to light years per day that Humanity's drives could achieve, it took about 6.8 seconds.

So right off the bat, going faster means you have less time to act and react before hitting the edge. Less time to accelerate, less time to get useful data.

Ergo, unless you went outside the bubble, they wouldn't have the space they'd need to truly test their FTL drives to the limit. Going outside the bubble, however, was uncomfortable to Humanity, so... they didn't.

It wouldn't taken them too long to start developing again. The best future had it at five days, with the upper ten percent at one to two weeks. Accounting for the Psychic Network's ability to skew the odds, I'd give it two weeks before it became fully available.

But ignoring that, for the moment...

It took four minutes and six seconds for Humanity to find the first thing upon the Dreamer's List. To be expected, of course, since there was a pair of Mass Relays that directly connected Sol to the system that would have become known as Utopia, if Humanity hadn't discovered what else was in the system.

Namely?

Protheans.

I was pretty proud of that one, actually. I set that one up in 2021. I'd been thinking; 'Man, wouldn't it be funny if the Protheans were still around and had to deal with this?'

The answer was yes. Yes it would be funny.

So I did it. Went to Javik, stuck a Gordian Crystal right next to him, pulled a Tatsumiya Mir and summoned the minds of beings that would have otherwise been long out of my reach, fiddled with the database of the Prothean Bunker to say that it had actually been done a while back instead of in 2021, added some camera footage, attached some extra functions to the Gordian Crystal so it would keep the base in good repair...

And so, there were a million Protheans instead of one.

Good stuff.

It all came together nicely, I think. The Protheans were back, which would prove useful later on. Their excesses, the tendency to go out, conquer civilizations, beat their culture into the dust while assimilating the peoples, that would be curbed by Humanity, sparing the galaxy any unfortunate conflict that it couldn't afford.

Not that there'd be no conflict, but there wouldn't be a conflict it couldn't afford.

The Protheans, in turn, provided a more... relatable point of view, for the galaxy at large. They were, after all, the Protheans, the species of legend for the rest of the galaxy. That had weight.

Careful balances, see. Needed the entire galaxy to get to the point of 'Fuck the Reapers', but not quite reaching the point of 'Fuck everybody else'.

Wasn't going to take very long for it all to start coming into play, now. Humanity's expansion had only accelerated, and the sheer distance that the Mass Relays let the Citadel Species cover was... extensive.

They'd meet, and then...

First Contact.

That will be fun.


End file.
